The lost king's journey
by Arumage
Summary: Issei loses his parents in a tragic accident, but soon learns about his true heritage. His new family show him what he truly is as well as give him the perfect chance to realize his childhood dream, to become a harem king. AU. Characters involved will change as story progresses. (IsseixHarem) Devil!Issei (To be rewritten)
1. Chapter 1 - the frost prince

note from author - I may or may not have done some slight updates to this chapter.

"Ise, I'm done with my shift, I've gotta get home so I'll leave you to lock up ok?" A girls voice called out to Issei, He was working the evening shift at his local convenience store, a job he had taken up for two reasons. One, After his parents death in a horrific train wreck at the start of the summer he had to find some way to pay the bills and whilst his parents had already paid off the house and insurance payouts would keep him going until he graduated, without work he would have no money to do the things he enjoyed.

The second reason had just left, the daughter of the owner of the convenience store who was also a part timer, Caroline, a short buxom foreigner with long wavy ginger hair had caught his eye one day when he was in the store shopping, and when she noticed that his gaze was on her for a little too long she asked him what was wrong and he said the first thing that popped into his head, "Do you have any openings for part timers?". She simply smiled at him and handed him an application form, one week later he was the one behind the counter and has been there for most of his last summer vacation before high school.

Before his parents died they had encouraged him to try and get into Kuoh Academy, a prestigious school that until this coming year was a girls only school. He had been studying hard and the entrance exam was held last month. He was due to get his results any day now, he and his two friends, Matsuda and Motohama had agreed to try and get in together. the three, know to most as the 'Perverted Trio' had agreed to try and get in in order to try and form harems from the girls at the school, however after the train wreck Ise had another reason on his mind to get in, Making his parents proud. Ever since they had passed Ise had spent more and more of his time studying, and less time hanging out with his friends, they did come to see him every so often still, they once came into the store whilst he was working and when his friends asked him why he was working there he just pointed over to the checkout where Caroline was standing. They got the idea quickly.

*Ring*  
Issei was brought out of his thoughts when someone entered the store. 'at this hour really?' The girl who entered was small, looked like she was about a year younger than him, she had white hair and had cat hair pins in. Issei thought she looked pretty cute but wondered why she was out at this hour.

"Welcome." Issei said with a rehearsed smile, the girl didn't acknowledge him and simply went to the sweets isle and emerged with more sweets than she seemingly could carry, she brought them over to Issei and placed them on the counter and then put a 2000 yen bill down. Issei rung up the purchase and asked if she needed a bag. The girl nodded and walked out with her bag full of sweets.

When the girl left Issei began closing up the shop, he turned the sign around, locked the front door and took the trash out to the back alley, locking the back door behind him, when he got there he set it down on the ground. There was another thing about him, ever since he was young he could use magic, even he wasn't sure how, when he told his parents about it they were just as confused as he was, that was the day when they told him that he was actually adopted. This was a shock to him at the time, but since then he had come to terms with the fact. Issei took the bags of trash and created a small ball of magic in his palm, he called it ruination, or destruction since this particular magic destroyed any non-living thing it touched. He quickly used it to destroy the bags of trash, saving space in the bins.

He always did his best to make sure that no one ever saw him use his magic, but today, today it seems that he was negligent as a man with long silver hair ran into the alley as well, and spoke to himself, "Damn it Heinz, just had to come to her territory didn't you, Crimson ruin princess really is an appropriate name, that bitch is damn terrifying." The man then spotted Issei. "Lucky me, it seems I won't go hungry tonight at least. Sorry boy but this is the end for you." The man walked up to Issei and began licking his lips. Issei backed up a bit and held his arms up to block whatever was incoming.

"Stop right there." The voice of a young woman said from the end of the alleyway. "In the name of the duke of Gremory, I have been sent here to end you Heinz Collenheim, oh, we have a civilian, Koneko, grab him."

"On it." the little girl from earlier said, launching herself towards the madman. She knocked him to the ground with a clothes line. But then screamed out in pain when he bit her arm as she hit him. In the second that it bought him the man managed to throw the girl back towards her master.

Issei at this point had begun to run away. "Not so fast little snack." The man yelled giving chase. Issei turned around for a moment and used his magic to create a wall of ice between him and the madman giving chase. Issei then took his chance to get home as fast as possible and hope this was all a dream.

When all was said and done there wasn't even a shred of the stray devils clothing left. Koneko held her arm where she was bit. Despite the Rooks defensive prowess this creature's jaw was like a vice and it certainly left some damage. Meanwhile her king was inspecting the wall of ice. "This was, magic? Did he even use a casting circle?" Rias Gremory questioned to herself.

Her knight broke her train of thought, he jumped down from the roofs where he was stationed to cut of escape for the devil. However he was beaten to the punch by the one who created the ice wall they managed to corner the stray against. "Prez, If I may, he did indeed use a magic circle, but he cast the spell so fast that it was gone in the blink of an eye. But that's not the most troubling part about it." The blonde haired boy said with a stern look on his face. "The magic circle, was that of the lucifuge family."

"How is that possible?" Rias said 'The last of their line is Grayfia, there isn't even a second or third cousin left.' She thought to herself before giving her orders to her servants "Akeno take and preserve a piece of this Ice, we'll get it examined tomorrow. Koneko, Kiba, I want you two to look into who this boy is, we need a name, date of birth, any family."

"His name is Issei." Koneko said matter of factly.

"How do you know that?" Rias asked shocked.

"It's what his name badge said. I bought some sweets from him earlier." Koneko said plainly.

"Well that's a start." Rias said a slight smile coming to her face at their fortune before dismissing her peerage for the night.

-TimeSkip-

Issei had more or less forgotten about his strange encounter in the midsummer as fall rolled around. He was one of the lucky few that had managed to get through all three stages of enrolment for Kuoh academy and now he returned to school, but remained distant with his friends, neither of them had passed the interview section of the enrolment process and were focusing on getting into a nearby highschool if possible. This meant Issei was alone at lunch and after school as the pair were away . Well he was supposed to be alone, but as soon as school had started up again there was a new transfer student, a boy by the name of Kiba Yuuto, he had half the girls in the school at his feet almost immediately. He was put into Issei's class and he was expecting to loathe the boy as soon as he met him, but the pair ended up getting along swimmingly. The pair of them were both going into Kuoh academy next year.

The two were sat on the rooftop of the school eating lunch, there were a few girls stalking Kiba but he was acting like he didn't notice. "So you planning on joining a club in highschool, it's a bit late for junior high, but you can't exactly be a full time pervert again in highschool." Kiba said as he prepared to take a mouthful of food.

"Very funny pretty boy, I'm not sure, how about you, kendo again?" Issei asked despite the mouthful of rice he was already in the middle of eating.

"Whilst kendo would be nice, I'm interested in the occult research club, apparently the one at Kuoh is the best funded in the country." Kiba said after swallowing.

"Occult research? Didn't have you pinned for a believer in the supernatural." Issei said.  
"Didn't have you pinned for a sceptic." Kiba said looking a little shocked.

"Well, it's not that I don't believe it, I just never expected you to be into magic, ghosts and all that." Issei said looking a little nervous. It was at this point that Kiba's king, Rias Gremory had her familiar watch nearby.

"I'm gonna get going, I need to make a stop before heading back to class." Kiba said taking off.  
"I'll take care of the trash, just leave it with me." Issei said with a smile.  
"Thanks man." Kiba said taking off towards the stairwell.

When Issei was sure that Kiba and his followers were gone Issei picked up a wrapper from the small pile of trash next to him and threw it up in the air. He then took his hand and made a gun shape. He pointed it at the airborne trash and lowered his thumb as if cocking the hammer of the finger gun. He then cast a spell as it happened causing a small ball of destruction to go flying at the trash, disintegrating it instantly. Issei had a little laugh at it and then took three more pieces and did the same thing with the three all at once. Issei then finished his own food continuing the little game of his until he had destroyed all of the trash. At that point the bell rang and lunch break ended.

Meanwhile the lunch bell had also rung at Kuoh academy, but first year president of the Occult research club, Rias Gremory was too shocked to move. She had just witnessed the boy she and her peerage had been investigating for the past few months not only use her families hereditary magic but what's more he was showing far more precision and skill with it despite receiving no training of any kind. She didn't have to question her next move for long, she skipped her afternoon classes and her and her queen, Akeno Himejima made their way to the underworld to talk with her family, perhaps they could shed some light on this boy.

"Mother, Father, I need to talk with one of you." Rias said as she entered her family home.  
"I'm sorry lady Rias, both the lord and lady are out at the moment. I'm guessing since you are missing classes it is important." Grayfia said bowing to the young heiress.  
"Indeed it is, perhaps you could help me instead." Rias said.

"Very well, what seems to be the problem." Grayfia responded.

"Could we speak in a private room." Rias asked. "I don't want anyone unnecessary hearing us."  
"Very well, this way." Grayfia said leading Rias and Akeno towards another room. When they arrived Grayfia locked the door as Rias sat down.

"What is such an important problem that it couldn't wait until after school. You were the one who demanded to go to school in japan afterall." Grayfia said, letting her servant persona slip a little.  
"Well you see, it's about a boy that I encountered during the summer." Rias started

"You won't get out of your engagement that easily." Grayfia said with a smirk, she hated Raiser as much as the next woman but she also knew that the Gremory family needed the phoenix family and vice versa, and since there were no other possible pairings since her and Sirzechs were unwilling to give Millicas' future away at such a young age. Leaving them stuck trying to help Rias as much as they could without outright cancelling the marriage.

"It's nothing like that" Rias protested. "When I first saw him I thought he was just a normal human, but he was being attacked by a stray at the time. I was going to kill the stray then remove his memories of the incident but then something happened. Akeno if you please." At that her queen placed a piece of ice on the table in front of Grayfia. "He began to run in fear and created a wall of ice, using magic, I didn't even see him use a magic circle and the wall was big enough to fill the entire alleyway. Kiba was the only one with a proper view and fast enough eyes to catch the magic circle, and it was." Rias breathed in taking a moment to collect her thoughts and prepare for the tirade of questions that surely followed. "It was the same as yours." Rias finished.

Grayfia looked shocked she held her hand over the ice to feel it, She knew the feeling of her own family's magic, and it shocked her. "Why didn't you contact anyone about this earlier?" She asked her eyes glistening at the possibility, she knew not to let herself hope, she couldn't even let anyone else know until she was certain, she didn't want anyone else to be disappointed in the entirely likely possibility that she was wrong, but she still let hope live inside her for even a short moment.

"I wanted to do more research, see if he was from another faction, or even a magician skilled in illusions attempting to confuse us for some reason." Rias explained. "I had Koneko follow him when he was working and out of school and I transferred Kiba into his class. The boy is an orphan, and not just that his parents were adoptive. I haven't gotten close enough to check and see if he is a devil for myself but." Rias collected herself again. "Today I had my familiar watch him during lunch break and I saw something amazing. This boy possesses the power of destruction, the hereditary magic of the Baal family, I would recognise it anywhere." Rias was finished with her report and was about to ask her question but was interrupted by Grayfia,  
"Lucias." She said crying a little.

"Pardon." Rias asked calmly but a little stirred, she had never seen Grayfia cry, not even once.  
"That was the name of Millicas' older brother, he was taken from us. 13 years ago, I had already put him to bed and Sirzechs and I were in a meeting, that was when a rogue fallen angel broke into our home and kidnapped him. Your brother and me were distraught, half the underworld was scrambled hunting for him, even the higher-ups in the gregori went to search for him, worried that it may lead to war if anything happened. It was Baraqiel that got closest to him, he found the rogue, a grunt name Lanakiel whom wanted war more than anything. Baraqiel took him out of the sky but was unable to find Lucias. We were certain that he had died, but if what you are telling me is true, there is a chance, there is a chance that my baby is still alive." Grayfia said.

"So you are saying that this boy could be my nephew?" Rias asked, a little shocked.

"I don't want to hope, but if he has both the power of destruction and lucifuge magic then there is a high chance that he may well be..." Grayfia said.

"Hyoudou Issei, that is the name he goes by, if you want I can try and get you a chance to meet him and verify for yourself." Rias said standing up.

"Thank you." Grayfia said calming herself. "And please, do not mention this to anyone else. I wouldn't want to get their hopes up before I know for certain."

"Understood." Rias looked down at her watch. "Class is already finished for the day." Rias created a magic circle to talk to her knight knowing he was out of class already.

"Kiba, I need you to get Issei to come over to your place tonight, I don't care how you do it, but we need to meet him." Rias said into the circle.

"Yes prez" Kiba responded before quickly ending the conversation.

"Grayfia, we can meet with him tonight, would you like to clean yourself up?" Rias asked.

"I shall go and change, I will meet you at your knights abode shortly." Grayfia said calmly

-Later that day-

"So you said this friend of yours is a student at Kuoh academy?" Issei said as he and Kiba walked the corridors of the apartment building Kiba lived at.

"Yep, she's very smart and popular. She's in charge of the occult research club so that's part of the reason that I'm going to be joining it." Kiba said

"Oooh, got a crush on her or something?" Issei inquired playfully.

"Shut up dumbass, and please don't say anything inflammatory tonight, they arent the kind of person you want to be on the bad side off." Kiba pleaded.

"Got it, I'll just keep my mouth shut." Issei said.

Kiba unlocked the door and stepped inside, in his living room sat two women, a white haired lady in a white dress shirt and a grey dress skirt. Next to her was a red haired girl in a kuoh academy uniform. Issei had just enough time to take in the two's appearance before a third girl entered the room from the kitchen carrying tea. She was also in a kuoh academy uniform and had long black hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Ah you must be Issei." The black haired woman said looking towards the door.

"Ise, this is Akeno Himejima, she's the vice president of the occult research club." Kiba said.  
Issei looked at her and said "Nice to meet you."

Rias then stood up and took a look at him, finally getting a good chance to sense the power within him, he was definitely a devil. "I am Rias Gremory, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is mine." Issei said starting to struggle a little.  
Grayfia then turned and looked at him, the second she saw him she ran up and hugged him.

"Erm..." Issei started.

"This is Grayfia lucifuge, she's..." Kiba started to say before looking at his king for guidance.

"I'm your mother, I can't believe I finally found you." Grayfia said crying.

"My, mother, It can't be, how can you know?" Issei asked in disbelief. Grayfia backed away a little, tears still streaming down her cheeks and a smile plastered on her face. She summoned a magic circle in her hand and held it out for him.

"I know those eyes anywhere, I could feel it as soon as I saw you, as for proof." Grayfia said. "I already know you can make a magic circle like this one. Don't do any magic but make the circle at least." Issei did as the woman said, a little shocked that someone else could do magic other than him. When he did the rest of the devil's in the room got to see Issei's family crest for themselves. They saw it side by side with Grayfia's they were identical. "It really is you. I cannot believe I finally found you." Grayfia then pulled her son into a hug.

Issei was shocked to say the very least. He was expecting to meet some high school girls tonight, not his biological mother. He pushed himself away from the woman, now claiming to be his mother. "If you are my mother, then how come you didn't raise me, how come I was found in a puddle of freezing water in the middle of a stormy night by a couple of humans. Why is it now that I am finally getting used to coming home to an empty house that you finally show up." Issei asked angrily.

"You were stolen from us, I looked everywhere I could to find you, but even after 6 years of searching we couldn't find you, eventually, we had to stop searching, but we never stopped hoping, dreaming that you were ok." Grayfia said with tears in her eyes.

"This is all too much, the magic, you being my mother, me being kidnapped. Just let me sit down for a minute." Issei said realising that he was almost certainly hurting her. "Let's just talk this out for a bit.

"Rias, you can go ahead and tell your brother and parents. And thank you, you have no idea how much this means to me." Grayfia said turning to her sister-in-law.

"I'll go and get my brother then, and hey, I get a new nephew to spoil out of it, it's not all bad for me. Rias said making a magic circle on the floor. "Kiba, Akeno come with me, we'll give them a chance to talk alone for a bit." Rias said as she and her two servants took off.

"I can't believe any of this is really happening." Issei said. "I have so many questions."  
"Well I'll try to answer as many of them as possible, Issei?" Grayfia struggled to use his human name.

"Ise, please call me Ise, since you are my mother, but I want to know, what was the name you gave me?"

"The name we gave you, was Lucius lucifuge-Gremory." Grayfia said. "Your father, my husband, Sirzechs will be joining us soon hopefully, once he is here I can explain your family name a bit better."

"Well, um, how about we get to the elephant in the room, why is it that we can do magic?" Issei asked putting a hand behind his head nervously.

"You might not want to hear this but..." Grayfia paused for a second. "We aren't exactly human."  
Issei was shocked at this, he wasn't human. Seriously?

"We are actually, devils, there is a lot more to it than that but the short version is we are the kinds of devils that are talked about in the bible." Grayfia clarified.

"That explains why it hurt every time I was dragged to church as a kid." Issei said, shocking Grayfia.

"WHO DRAGGED YOU INTO A CHURCH?" Grayfia was a little bit furious at that, if he was taken to a church then someone there must have recognised him as a devil, he could have been killed.

"Well there was this girl." Issei said his face blushing a bit. "We were good friends when we were younger but she had to move away a couple years ago."

"Anyway" Grayfia coughed. "I've been told that your adoptive parents are already, um, you know."

"Yeah, they died earlier this year. It was a train wreck, there were a lot of people killed, guess they were just unlucky." Issei said.

"Were they good people?" Grayfia asked.

"The best." Issei said with a light smile on his face but a sadness behind his eyes.  
It was at that point that another magic circle appeared on the floor. This time a man with red hair entered the apartment. He took one look at Issei and gave him a massive hug. "I can't believe it's really you, she found you." The man said.

"Issei, this is your father, Sirzechs Lucifer, he is one of the four Satans currently ruling the underworld." Grayfia said calmly.

"I'm gonna need a history lesson on this soon." Issei said sitting back down.

"We can get it sorted out later." Sirzechs said sitting down next to Grayfia. "Sorry I just can't really believe it. After all this time you were right under our noses. It would be kind of funny if it weren't so sad."

"Under your noses?" Issei asked

"You know kuoh academy, well I along with my mother are on the board for the school, so we have been into this town quite a bit, not to mention Rias and Sona are at school here, so it's kind of impressive you managed to avoid us this long." Sirzechs said laughing a little.

"So what are we going to do now?" Grayfia asked.

"Well we can't exactly kidnap Issei, but now that we have finally found him we aren't exactly just going to leave him alone again." Sirzechs said.

The conversation from then went onto what they were going to do next as well as what Issei had been up to. It was decided that Issei would continue his life as normal for the most part. He would take the lucifuge and Gremory names and move Hyoudou to his middle name, honouring the memory of his adoptive parents. Grayfia agreed that he would need a considerable amount of training and education and since he was already due to start at Kuoh academy, which he was shocked to learn his family had deep ties to, it was decided that Grayfia would tutor him on the history of devils, the proper way to act as a high class devil, society and such other things during the evening. Issei would continue to live in the Hyoudou home, but would need to meet with the rest of his family sometime soon. Issei also noted that his finances would be handled by the Gremory family, and with his mother tutoring him he would need to leave his job at the convenience store. He would miss Caroline but with everything going on now he didn't have a lot of brain power left to think of an excuse to give her, so he put off saying anything.


	2. Chapter 2 - Love letter

Things were interesting at school after Issei met his parents, they had managed to get him registered with their family and finished the name change in almost a week, he supposed that devils had more connections than he had first assumed. More than a few people asked him about the sudden name change and he simply said that he had met his birth family and that they had been looking for him for years. Some people started rumours that he was doing it for attention but they were quickly snuffed out by none other than Kiba, some girls were talking about it and Kiba had mentioned that he was there when Issei met his mother and explained how it looked and the girls were all down with the change.

Issei also decided that with a new name would come a new him, so he rounded up all of his old erotica and began to burn it, but not before doing a bit of "research" on devils by reading some of the stuff about them.

His lessons on devil society went by faster than he expected, but there was one part in particular that stuck out to him.

"So high class devil males will sometimes take multiple wives in order to ensure heirs?" Issei asked his mother.

"Yes, though your father and grandfather only love one woman, some will take multiple in order to ensure heirs. Whilst others will just simply claim women as their own in order to build a harem. One example is a man by the name of Raiser Phoenix, his peerage is filled with 15 women all of whom are bound to follow his will no matter what. This man is Rias' fiancée, unfortunately." Grayfia said.

"If he's so bad then why is she marrying him?" Issei asked blankly.

"The Gremory family and the Phoenix families seek to bring their families closer together and an engagement between two of their children is the best option, unfortunately Raiser's brothers have no interest in taking a second wife and me and your father refuse to have either you or Millicas be made to marry someone you don't love, we also don't want to force poor little Ravel into marrying someone she doesn't love even if we know for a fact you and Millicas are far better than Raiser."

"Isn't there some way that she can get out of it." Issei asked, looking deep in thought.

"Well the contract does state that if she or a champion of her choice can beat Raiser or a champion of his choice in a rating game then she can dissolve the engagement, but Raiser is extremely powerful, so the chances of that happening are near zero." Grayfia said, looking a little dejected.

Issei ended up getting to spend the holidays with his family, something that he had been worrying about for most of the summer. Things were starting to look up for him as he moved into the spring of his life.

A week before he started high school Issei was taken to have his evil pieces set up and by the time he was walking into Kuoh academy he was a high class devil. The first thing he had to do was meet with the student council vice-president and his aunt. He walked towards the occult research club.

"Ah Issei, welcome." Kiba said opening the door for him.  
"Thank you." Issei said as he took a seat on the sofa facing Sona.  
"Alright, Thanks for coming, Lets begin our meeting. First up on the agenda is ground rules for peerage recruiting. Ise you have ypur evil pieces now yes?" Rias said.  
Issei nodded.

"Alright, whenever one of us finds a potential member we need to inform the others in order to avoid disputes. Sona if it's alright with you I would like to give Issei priority if there is anyone he wishes to use his queen piece on. It being the most major piece I would like to make sure that neither of us stop him from getting his first choice in queen." Rias said.

"That sounds fair." Sona conceded. She didn't like the idea of someone sweeping in and stealing Tsubaki from her, so she accepted this rule on a moral point.

"Thank you very much, are there any prospects either of you already have your eye on?" Issei asked.

"Glad you asked. I'm keeping an eye on a boy in your year Saji, his name is. I'll see how he acts in the school and I'll have my decision in a month or so." Sona said.

"Understood" Both Gremorys said.

"I've not got my eye on anyone in particular at the moment." Rias said dejectedly.

"Alright then." Issei said.

"Now with regards to devil work." Sona said taking out a few sheets of paper. "Rias will assist you with contracts and summons until you get a familiar." Sona put a colour coded chart down, showing advertising areas. "As for strays, both of us will take you on hunts so you can gain some experience. We take alternative shifts on hunting strays and we will each take you on half of them, expect about one every two weeks." Sona said taking out a Rota.

"Finally you will need to form a club in order to have your peerage be close by without drawing attention." Sona handed him a application form, under activities 'other' was already selected. "You don't need it done now but once you have two or more servants it'll probably start to matter."

"Alright then, I need to get going but I'll talk to you two later." Issei said getting up and heading for the door.

Issei was one of the last ones to get to his classroom meaning that he didn't get much choice in his seat. There were two spots left, one near the window, and one in the third row near the door. Issei decided to head for the window seat since it was closer to where he sat in junior high.

Once Issei sat down the last missing student, Kiba Yuuto, entered. Not that it surprised Issei much but the second he entered he could hear almost every girl in the class collectively gasp.  
What did give him a bit of a surprise was the lack of reaction from the girl adjacent to him, he turned to take a quick look at her and to his surprise it was one of his classmates from junior high, Murayama Kaori, she was one of the few girls in junior high who he never noticed focusing on Kiba as much as the rest of the girls in their class. She and Issei never really got along great what with him being one of the big three perverts in the school, but ever since he stopped hanging around with them she seemed to look less intimidating when she looked at him. A part of Issei wanted to say 'hi' to her but he figured it would be pushing his luck a little and he didn't want to start any rumours about himself on the first day.

After class Kiba and Issei were making their way to their lockers and chatting away. "so have you taken notice of anyone yet?" Kiba asked.

"I tried doing that thing my mama taught me about sensing potential sacred gears in people, I got a hit but I'm not sure at the moment, I might ask Rias about it maybe she can help me come to a conclusion." Issei responded

"Not a bad idea, I'm pretty sure she would happily help you out if you aren't sure, you need to be careful with your servants' you only have 15 pieces and you only get to use them once." Kiba said as they reached their lockers. Issei opened his first and a letter dropped out.

"Wow, someones-" Kiba started taunting Issei over his letter as he was bombarded with letters of his own.

"Damn, that's some impressive work pretty boy." Issei said looking at the small pile of letters at the pair's feet

"Well at least I'll have an excuse for not responding to all of these, it would be in bad taste for you to ignore yours however." Kiba said pointing at the letter in Issei's hand. "Go on, I'll tell prez you'll be along later to talk with her." Kiba picked up the letters.

Issei, as per the instructions he found inside the letter was now behind the kendo hall, he was to meet the sender after the club let out so he assumed that whoever sent it was probably in the club, he was sat with his back to the wall quietly playing with his ice magic, making sculptures and models, after about half an hour he gets around to making jewellery with it, he makes a few pretty intricate necklaces and eventually makes a ring. "Marriage huh?" Issei thinks to himself, he is lucky that his parent's haven't arranged a political marriage for him like Rias. He thought for a bit, 'It's not uncommon for devils to have harems, I may end up having multiple wives one day.' Issei thought a smile hit his face, he may end up living his childhood dream one day, the same dream that made him an outcast, he only had three friends after he began saying that out loud, Matsuda, Motohama and...

As Issei's thoughts moved to his childhood friend he was dragged back to reality by a shout from nearby. "Look's like we caught a pervert trying to peek at the changing rooms." A pink haired girl in her uniform was standing at the corner of the building looking at him, Issei quickly melted the ice in his hand and stood up.

"Hello there." Issei said calmly, putting his hand behind his head.

"Don't act coy, I KNOW you were trying to peek at us. Why else would you be here?" the woman said, two more members of the club moving in behind her.

"Wait a second that's not it at all, I got a letter telling me to meet someone here, so I'm waiting for them to show up." Issei pled with his hands up.

"You'll forgive me for being sceptical." the girl said again.

Issei took the note out from his pocket and walked over to the girls with it outstretched. The pink haired girl grabbed it out of his hand and opened it up. "Well, It seems your not a liar afterall. But, are you sure this is real, I mean It's the first day, what are you expecting?" The pink haired girl said handing the note back.

"I'm not sure, I doubt it's a confession or something. I mean It's the first day and I'm no Kiba." Issei explained. "But someone wanted me to meet them here and that Is what I plan to do."

"Well, then 'Issei' I guess I'll see you around." The pink haired girl said leaving with the other two girls. Shortly after the three left another girl rounded the other corner and snuck up behind Issei.

"Hello there, Hyou-Gremory." The girl behind Issei said, he recognised her voice immediately, this was Murayama, he expected it might be her given that it was the Kendo club room, after the club ended and she was the only girl from junior high that he had met so far.

"Murayama, hey, were you the one who sent the letter?" Issei asked calmly turning around.

"Yes I was actually, I wanted to know." Murayama was starting to look down a little and she had a slight blush dusting her cheeks. "What made you change?"

"Change?" Issei asked, genuinely confused by what she meant.

"The name, stopping being such a perv, hanging out with popular guys, I hardly recognise you from before. After summer everything started changing, the suddenly one day you changed your name and you seemed happier than ever before." Murayama asked looking away from him.

"Well, I stopped hanging out with Matsu and Moto because both of them were busy studying and since they weren't going to come here I started hanging out with Kiba since he was also going to come here, I would have asked to get to know you or some of the other girls better but I figured that with my reputation it would be better to talk with a guy instead." Issei explained with his hand behind his head. "As for the name change, Kiba was introducing me to some of his friends in the year above us at kuoh, the two in charge of the Occult research club, and when I got there they had another woman there, My biological mother, when she saw me she was convinced that I was actually her kidnapped son and we ended up taking a test and confirmed it, after that I met with the rest of my family. Long story short I am from the same

family as the President of the occult research club, Rias Gremory, i'm actually her nephew and I took up the family name but kept my given name in memory of my adoptive parents." Issei finished explaining and put his hands in his pockets. "Is that all you wanted from me?"

"That'll do for today. Hyou-Gremory" Murayama said.

"Just call me Ise, it'll be easier for you to remember." Issei said taking off. "Later Murayama."

"Kaori" Murayama commanded at Issei.

"Huh?" Issei said turning back to look at her.

"Just call me Kaori, ok?" Kaori said.

"Alright then, later Kaori, I'll see you in class tomorrow." Issei said taking off for the ORC. Kaori then quickly ran up behind him and hugged him from behind, shocking Issei.

"Just so you know, I like you a lot better like this than the old you." She said and then quickly ran off.

Issei was in shock, for two reasons, one he was just hugged by a girl, of her own will, and the other the power he just felt come off her, that was definitely a sacred gear. He wasn't sure what it was but he knew that she would certainly be a good person to make his.


	3. Chapter 3 - Stray

Issei entered the occult research club and greeted the members. "Hello everyone." Kiba walked over to him and began to ask some probing questions.

"So any luck with that love letter?" Kiba joked.

"I guess, the girl who sent it knew me in junior high and wanted to ask what happened to make me change so much." Issei said "But she's also the one who I mentioned earlier." Issei finished to Kiba.

"The one with a sacred gear?" Kiba asked.

"Yes,I'm sure, not sure what it is, is there any way to know?" Issei asked, this time to Rias who was looking on at her nephew getting along with her knight.

"Unless you can get it to awaken I highly doubt that you will learn what it is. Best to keep an eye on her, can I ask her name, so that me and Sona can mark her off as potentially yours for now?" Rias asked resting her head on her hands.

"It's Kaori Murayama." Issei says.

"Alright, I'll let Sona know." Rias says making a magic circle with his hands, contacting her friend.

Later that night the occult research club plus Issei went out to hunt a stray devil. There was a Stray going around sexually assaulting girls walking around late at night, that would be bad enough if it was a human doing it, but this former bishop of the Bael clan uses hypnosis in order to make the girls do it of their own will, then leaves them with the memories of what happened causing more than a few of them to kill themselves, all in all he was a disgusting monster that deserves to die.

The team had tracked him to an abandoned building, formerly a sports shop where he had lured a girl there minutes ago. "We need to get started sooner rather than later, every second we waste is a second he could be assaulting that poor girl." Issei said anxiously, this was his first stray hunt, it was rather intimidating, knowing that this was a matter of life and death but knowing what this monster did certainly made him feel better about what they were there to do.

"Alright, then let's enter, Koneko you have point, Kiba watch our flanks, Ise, you me and Akeno are the main firepower." Rias stated and the team moved towards the building. When they got to the door Koneko took the door down with a single strike.

"Knock knock." She deadpanned as the door flew to the other side of the building.

When he entered Issei turned on the lights and was shocked with what he saw. Before him he saw the devil, it had taken the form of a very fat man and was staring straight into the eyes of a brown haired girl in a Kuoh academy uniform. "Kaori?" Issei was shocked, this was the girl sat next to him in class, the girl who had hugged him earlier that very same day, the one who he had decided to tell everything and hope that she would become friends with him, the real him. This disgusting creep was standing over her and trying to claim her as his own.

When Issei spoke out the devil took notice of them finally and looked at the group of devils there to kill him. He retreated into the back and left Kaori who then turned to face them, there was a yellow glow to her eyes and a blankness to her stare that chilled Issei to his core.

"Careful she's under hypnosis, Koneko restrain her." Rias said.

The small white haired girl nodded and rushed Issei's classmate. Kaori then drew her Shinai and struck Koneko along the side of her face so fast that it actually left a cut. Koneko attempted to push her against the wall but Kaori jumped and went over the younger girls head. Koneko quickly recovered from her collision with the wall and turned to face Kaori again. But found her enemy already attacking her, Koneko took an extra strike, this time along her arm and then attempted to strike again, but this time her attack took far longer to hit than before. And was easily sidestepped by Kaori.

"What is going on, she's far too fast for a regular human." Kiba said worriedly.

"I've got this." Koneko protested, but she was far more sluggish, she shouldn't be nearly this tired fighting one mind controlled human.

"Perhaps it's her sacred gear?" Issei said.

"That is a possibility. Is it somehow slowing down Koneko, or speeding her up?" Kiba offered.

Issei shook his head "Both. It's draining the speed from Koneko every time she hits her."

"Koneko fall back. Kiba your-" Rias was about to give an order when Issei ran at their assailant.

"I've got this." Issei created a magic circle underneath her and when he reached Kaori he grabbed her and used the circle to encase her shoes in ice. Trapping the girl, he then grabbed her shinai mid strike and created a small amount of destruction in his hand and broke the blade leaving her trapped and unarmed. Issei walked back from her and watched what happened to her, she kept trying to get towards them. "That should hold her until we can take down the target." Issei said.

"Quick thinking Ise, I'm impressed." Rias said. The group then walked through the back of the building, they then stood before the stray attempting to create a magic circle to teleport away but Akeno used lighting to hit it and stop the teleportation. It attempted to move towards the window but Kiba was blocking the way very quickly "There is no escape for a runaway like you. For your crimes against devil kind as well as the women of this town, I Rias Gremory condemn yo-" As the strike was on it's way Kaori, now barefooted ran and took the hit for the stray. Issei in a moment of shock, anger and clarity charged in and destroyed the stray himself, pooling the power of destruction like he had seen Rias do previously. He annihilated the creature, not even a hair of him was left.

When issei came back to his senses he looked to the other devils with him, they had moved his classmate, who was now free of the hypnosis, she was on the floor and bleeding out, there was a large gash in her stomach where Rias' attack struck.

"Ise, what are you doing here?" She asked as Issei walked over to her.

"I should be the one asking you that question?" Issei said his sadness coming through his voice despite the joking atmosphere.

"I was walking home from the store and when I looked in the window here I suddenly started walking to the door. I couldn't control my body, I ended up attacking Koneko, and then you stopped me, but, but." She began to break down crying. "I'm gonna die now aren't I?" She asked. "I finally had a chance to get to know the real you, and I'm already going to die aren't I?"

Issei was crying as well at this point. He wiped his eyes "You don't have to." Issei said, creating a magic circle and summoning his evil pieces. "I can save you, but" Issei gulped preparing for the worst. "If I do so, you won't be human anymore."

"I get that you are just trying to comfort me, don't worry, It's fine, I'm happy to at least know, that you are once again, the boy I fell in..." Kaori said as she passed away in Issei's arms.

-Flashback First day of junior high-

Kaori Murayama was late, she had decided to stay late at kendo practice last night and had left herself too tired to wake up on time. She ended up rushing out of the house with a piece of toast in her mouth. She ended up eating it too quickly and gave herself hiccups. When she got to class she took a seat in the second back row, one seat away from the window and next to a messy brown haired boy. She turned to introduce herself to him "Hello there, my name is Ka*hiccup*-Ori, Murayama." She blushed and was about to look away embarrassed, but before she could he quickly turned to face her.

"BOO." he said loudly giving her quite a shock. Out of habit Kaori hit his arm.

"What was that for?" She asked.

"I thought It might help your hiccups." Issei said a grin on his face. "I'm Issei by the way, nice to meet you."

"Thanks, I guess, hey that actually worked." She put her hand to her throat and was shocked that this boy's stupid idea had worked. Between the creative solution and the honest attempt to help her first impression of Issei was a pretty good one, she thought he was funny and at least a little kind.

It wasn't until a year later in their second year when she started to have feelings for him. It was a hot summer day and she was just finishing her kendo training for the day. Once she got outside the heat wave really hit her like a truck. She turned to go and check on the peepers, Issei had revealed his true nature along with his friends, Matsuda and Motohama, the three were known as the 'Perverted trio' hated by most every girl in the school. As much as she hated it Kaori did need to concede that she was a little flattered that they chose to peep on her and her club out of all the girls, especially since they were the club that was most capable of beating the crap out of them. As she walked around to the usual spot that they would peep from the trio began to scramble. Like usual Matsuda and Motohama pushed Issei down as they stood up, hoping to use him as a distraction. Once the two had started running and Kaori was getting ready to pursue she blacked out from heat stroke, between the intensive training and the heat wave it was a miracle she made it this far.

She expected to hit the floor, but instead the last thing she felt was a pair of cold arms catch her before she hit the ground. The next thing she knew she woke up in the nurse's office as she opened her eyes she felt the pleasant coldness of an ice pack on her forehead. She turned to her right and was shocked to see Issei sat there with a smile on his face.

"You had me worried there Murayama, are you sure doing training in this weather is the best idea? I know more than half the club skipped today because of the weather." He said holding a grape soda out to her. She took it and was impressed with how cold it was, he must have gotten pretty lucky with when he bought it.

"Did you bring me here?" She asked.

He nodded in response, "Just as well those two took off as well, It would have taken far longer to get you here if they were slowing me down."

She furrowed her brow. "And you didn't do anything to me whilst I was unconscious?"

"Of course not, you passed out suddenly, I was a too busy worrying to mess with you." He said backing up.

She opened the drink and took a sip. "Thanks." She said quietly.

"I'll get going then, see you in class." He said as he took off.

'That seemed out of character for him' kaori thought to herself as she watched him walk out of the room, then she thought back to how he had acted in their first year, before he started hanging out with those two friends of his. 'This was more how he would act before then, It was almost as if when he was without those two he was kinder, more empathetic, more romantic.' She shook her head, 'where did that come from , romantic, she would never let herself think of him as romantic again'

Except she did, far more often that she would admit even to herself. It didn't feel like a crush though, not until after that fateful summer, when he got back from vacation he was very different than the boy that left, he was taller sure, he looked a bit more manly as well, she thought he had done weights or some heavy lifting during the break. She had found out from her mother that his parents had died during the vacation, it stung her more than hearing that a classmates parents had died probably should have, I mean it was tragic sure, but it's not like they were particularly close friends. Her official excuse was that she was just empathetic, but in the depths of her subconscious a part of her was silently whispering 'Shame you will never get a chance to meet his parents.' She tried her hardest to not think about him as much because her mind kept on pushing her further and further away from her attempts at indifference to her classmate. He stopped peeping with his friends, it was then that she decided finally to repair the peep hole that they had been using for years. 'To protect the first years.'

Once Kiba transferred in and became friends with him, a deep dark part of her was yelling that she should have asserted her supremacy and claimed him whilst he was at his lowest. That she could have taken him and made him the perfect man for her. She did what she could to ignore it, at least until she started to see the changes happening to Issei, he was acting less and less like a pervert every day. Then he changed his name, it was like he was trying to reinvent himself or something, like he wanted to stop being who he was before. But even then she still saw the same boy who scared her hiccups away on the first day of school. Though she never admitted it to everyone, she herself had finally agreed to what her heart seemed to know for much longer than her head, she was in love.

-back to present-

"DAMN IT." Issei shouts tears in his eyes.

"Ise" Rias tried to talk to him but he wasn't paying attention. "ISE!" She shouted this time, getting his attention. "I get that this might not be how you want to do things. But the piece will still work. Even post-mortem you can revive a person as a devil. It's how I got Kiba to join my peerage, though that's his story to tell."

"I can still save her?" Ise asked disbelief in his voice.

"Yes just take one of your pieces, since she's a swordswoman, perhaps a knight piece." Rias suggested.

Ise took out the snow white chess piece and placed it on his classmates chest and began chanting still holding her in his arms "I Issei Gremory stand before you, This soul you claimed is not yours to take yet, Kaori Murayama is to be my Knight and I won't let you take her, now shatter the chains of death and give her back to me!" when he finished a magic circle appeared below the pair and Kaori opened her eyes and looked up at Issei. "You aren't getting away that easily." Issei said with tears streaming down his eyes.

"Good." was all she said in response before falling asleep, apparently dying then being brought back to life really took it out of you.


	4. Chapter 4 - The knight's opening move

Kaori Murayama woke up in the morning the same as she always did, at 5:43, this gave her two minutes to get to the shower, 10 minutes to shower, 5 to get dressed, followed by an hour of training before eating breakfast and heading to school. Her body clock had this down pat so even after a night with such an intense dream she was certain that she would be up at the right time. She opened her eyes and took in her surrounding. Then screamed.

"What's wrong?" Issei said as he rushed into his spare bedroom where he left Kaori after she fell asleep last night. He could have dropped her off at her parents but he wasn't actually sure where she lived. He did however use her phone to call her parents and with some careful explanation (and a bit of magical suggestion). He convinced them that she was fine.

"Where am I? What am I doing here? what are you doing?" She was panicked, here she was in a bed she didn't recognise, with her crush standing in the doorway with a 'kiss the cook' apron on.

"Alright calm down, what is the last thing you can remember? I'll explain the rest from there, but first you should come and get some breakfast." Issei said calmly and threw her some spare clothes. "They might be a little big but they should do, your clothes were a bit damaged last night."

At this point Kaori realised that she was actually not wearing anything, something that she would need to grill Issei about when he was explaining everything, but for now she did as she was told and got dressed, after he left of course.

Downstairs she walked into the kitchen, following her nose and saw Issei standing over the hob making omelettes and toast, at the dining table he saw a white haired woman in a main costume. Now she had even more questions than before, she entered the room and took a seat at the table across from the maid.

"Good morning, I am Grayfia lucifuge, Issei's mother, It's a pleasure to meet you." The woman in the maid costume said.

"The pleasure is all mine ma'am". Kaori responded.

"Alright, foods ready." Issei said placing a plate in front of each of the women at his table, before grabbing a third and placing it down and taking a seat himself. "Now Mur-Kaori, what is the last thing you can remember from last night?" Issei asked.

"Well I remember walking home from the store, then I looked in the window of that abandoned shop, then my body started acting on it's own and I walked into the shop. After that you, Kiba and three girls from school all walked in as well and, I think I fought the smaller girl, after that you broke my sword and stuck my shoes to the floor."

"Yeah sorry, they are kinda damaged after that." Issei said putting a hand behind his head.

"Then I remember taking them off and rushing into the next room. After that it's all blank." Kaori finished her recount of the events and then looked to Issei, "What happened, how did I end up at your house?"

"Well after you entered the other room you jumped in front of an attack that was about to hit the guy that mind controlled you. After that I finished the guy off, then I went over to check on you." Issei gulped worried about how she would take the bombshell. "You were bleeding out. I saw it myself, there was a massive gash in your stomach and you, kinda, died." Kaori gasped at the news.

"I'm dead?" Kaori asked, more shocked than confused.

"Well, WERE dead, I revived you, as a devil." Issei finally came out and said it.

"AS A WHAT?" She stood up, accidentally unleashing her devil wings as she did so. "AAAAHH, what are these? Wings, the wings of a…"

"A devil. Specifically the kind detailed in the bible. Millenia ago there was a great war between devils, angels and fallen angels, in the aftermath we devils were left with a great deal fewer numbers and with such low birth rates we had to come up with a new way to increase our forces, so we invented these." Grayfia spoke up given that she was the best to explain the history of devils. Issei took out his evil pieces and placed a knight on the table in front of them. "Evil pieces are used by devils to reincarnate other beings as devils, they are given to high class devils and Issei being a member of the Gremory family holds the right to create a peerage of devil servants, you are the first that he has reincarnated."

"So I'm his slave now?" Kaori asked sounding rather annoyed by the prospect.

"Technically, but that's not really how i wanted my peerage to be, I wanted mine to be more like Rias or Dad's, trusted friends, those close to me." Issei said calmly.

"Don't forget that your father ended up marrying his queen." Grayfia said in a moment of mischief that belied her ice queen exterior. She thoroughly enjoyed the two blushing teenagers that she beheld at her statement.

"So these, 'evil pieces', could you explain them a bit more?" Kaori asked.

"Sure, every devil who gets them gets 16 pieces, 1 king that they use on themselves, a queen, two knights, two bishops, two rooks and eight pawns." Issei explained

"Just like chess." Kaori noted out loud.

"Yep. Now that I used one of my pieces I still have my queen, one knights, two bishops, two rooks and eight pawns." Issei said.

"So I'm a knight then." Kaori asked.

"Yep, I figured that since you are a swordswoman you might like the extreme speed boost that comes from the knight, on top of the greatly increased stamina and strength that comes with being a devil." Issei said, grabbing the last piece of food on his plate.

"One last thing. From the report that Rias gave me, whenever you struck Koneko, her rook, you seemed to sap the speed from her. Issei already thought that you might be in possession of a sacred gear before last night and given what you managed to do as a normal human fighting against a devil it has become clear that you certainly do have one." Grayfia said. "I'm guessing that you were ignorant of this but please could you try and imagine what the power that resides inside you, the power that let you do that."

Kaori closed her eyes and tried to imagine something, whatever it was that gave her the speed she had last night. Suddenly she felt something, a massive burst of power coming from her back.

"Looks like it is as lord Beelzebub predicted, Momentum pillage, this sacred gear is one of the fragments of the white dragon emperor. I'll explain more later but for now all you'll need to know is that this will let you steal half of an enemy's speed when you strike them and give it to yourself. This will mean that combined with the knight's power you will be able to reach speed's you never thought possible. Now speaking of speed you should probably hurry and get to school." Grayfia said.

Kaori and Issei turned to look at the clock and sure enough they had managed to spend half an hour talking all of this through and they needed to get to school quickly. The two teens quickly rushed out of the house and took off for the school.

Kaori immediately noticed some of the major changes from yesterday, she was able to run flat out from Issei's house all the way to the school without feeling tired at all once she made it there. When they got there they still had ten minutes till the first bell so they had time to talk a little in private.

"In case it wasn't obvious yet, keep the whole devil thing a secret." Issei said. "Also when we are let out for lunch meet up with me and Kiba."

"Alright then, what should I tell people if they ask about us arriving at school together?" Kaori asked.

"I'll let you come up with something." Issei said taking off and dispersing a group of girls cornering Kiba at his locker.

"Hey man, how you holding up?" Issei asked.

"I should be asking you that, your the one that brought a girl home last night." Kiba taunted, Issei could feel the stares from a lot of people in that moment.

"After the shock of waking up in my spare room wore off she took the news of what happened better than I expected, but I'll tell you the rest later." Issei responded as the pair made their way to the classroom.

-time skip-

At lunch Issei, Kaori and Yuuto were stood behind the occult research club in a pretty out of the way area. "Looks like we have lost all of your stalkers at this point Cassanova. Alright Kaori, you might have figured it out already but Kiba here is also a devil, he's the same as you, a former human that was made into a knight."

"Seriously, you didn't use some devil magic to make all the girls fall for you did you?" Kaori asked pointedly.

"If I did that love letter from yesterday would have ended up in my locker instead of Issei's" Kiba joked making Kaori blush.

"It wasn't anything like that, besides that's not why we are here and we are on a tight schedule." Issei said.

"Right right." Kiba said before creating a pair of swords from the ground next to him. "Like you I also have a sacred gear Murayama, my one is called 'sword birth' and it lets me create all kinds of demonic swords at will. Since you don't have a weapon yet we are going to design one here. Try each of these out and tell me what you think."

Kaori got over the shock of seeing the swords come out from the ground and plucked one of them. It was a fairly long and was far heavier than Kaori would have liked, after her second swing almost had her fall over she put it down and plucked the other, this one was far shorter and was much lighter. "This one is closer to being good, but it's a bit short."

"Alright" Kiba made two more swords. Kaori drew each and judged them.

"This one's a bit short still and the weight isn't right" She put down the first sword and drew the second "And this one is all wrong. Could you try and make one closer to the shinai the club use?"

"Alright give me a second." He made one blade. Kaori plucked it from the ground and gave it a swing. It had the shape of a typical shinai, but instead of being malleable like a regular one it was solid, it had a silvery-white handle with a black hilt followed by a twisting pair of snow white and crimson cylinders leading to a pointed top.

"This is perfect." Kaori said. "Exact weight and the length is great."

"That's good. Because of your sacred gear it's more important that you land a hit than the damage that each hit deals, so you being comfortable with it is more important. However hitting the enemy 20 times with a stick won't do much, even if you are stealing half their speed with each strike, because of this I made it so that you can draw power from your evil piece and use it to empower your hits with magic from your king, this will make it so that even if the sword isn't sharp you can still deal a lot of damage with it. Finally the pointed top is so that if you find yourself needing to deal the killing blow to an enemy, but you don't have any power left you can still finish off most enemies." Kiba explained.

"That's great, now all it needs is a name." Kaori said.

"Hmmm, since it's yours I'll leave it up to you. Pick something cool." Kiba said.

Kaori looked at the sword Inquisitively. Trying to pick a name for the sword.

"You don't need to name it right now. For now let's get lunch, we still have time to grab a quick bite before afternoon classes. You have kendo club today yes?" Issei said. Kaori nodded. "Alright, can you swing by the occult research club afterwards, I'll introduce you to my aunt and she can better explain what we do as devils." Issei said and the pair took off for the lunch hall.

-time skip-

Kaori was in the middle of a kendo match with her fellow freshman club member Yui Katase. The pink haired girl was putting up a good fight but Kaori was having to do her best to make sure that she didn't accidentally use any of her devil strength or speed. Katase was on the back foot and decided to try an underhanded trick to get one over on her opponent. Even if the two were just having a friendly match she couldn't help but feel a bit of rivalry with her. "So how did it go with that boy yesterday?"

Kaori blushed deeply at this but managed to remember to block the incoming attack. "What are you talking about?" Kaori attempted to play dumb in hopes that she wouldn't accidentally spill too much."

"The boy that was waiting behind the club room, he had a letter that told him to wait there and I saw you and him sneak off at lunch today, so what happened?" Yui taunted, making another strike.

"Nothing like that. He's just a friend." Kaori said.

"A friend that you had to send a letter to talk to in private?" Yui continued taunting before she realised that she had distracted herself and ended up getting hit on the head losing the match. "Guess that's what I get." Kaori smiled at her opponent. The two left the hall and went to the changing rooms. "So in all honesty is there anything between you two?" Yui asked this time out of genuine curiosity.

"Nothing at the moment, just friends, doing better than junior high at least." Kaori said reluctantly.

"junior high huh, how long have you been into him?" Yui asked.

"Second year in junior high I got heat stroke after deciding to keep training despite the heatwave, not my smartest move but he carried me to the nurses office and gave me a chilled drink, that's what got me interested at least."

"Cute, that reminds me, I only got his first name yesterday." Yui said

"Oh, yeah, he used to be Issei Hyoudou, but last year he reconnected with his birth family and now he is Gremory." Kaori said.

"Seriously?" Yui sounded shocked. "Know if there is any relation to Rias Gremory, the second year with the red hair that is like an actual princess."

"He did mention her, something about her being his aunt, his mom did look pretty young as well so I guess it's not that hard to believe that his aunt is only a year older than him." Kaori said.

"If he's related to Rias then why isn't he already the most popular guy in the school?" Yui asked a little starstruck with Issei's relation to her idol.

"Probably because he hangs out with Kiba so much, blondie casts a shadow that Issei is more than willing to relax in at the moment." Kaori explained. "Give it a month and all the girls who get their heart broken by Kiba will get over it and try their luck with Issei."

"And you'll have him on lockdown by then?" Yui asked.

"In an ideal world, yes." Kaori said with a smile as she prepared to leave. "I've gotta go meet up with Ise, so I'll talk to you later Yui?"

"Oh, gimme your line ID before you go." Yui said taking her phone out. Kaori also got hers out and the two traded contact details.

At around the same time Yuuto and Issei were chatting away near the lockers.

"So have you decided what to call your club yet?" Yuuto asked leaning against the lockers.

"I probably won't need it for a while, so I haven't given it much thought." Issei said opening his locker "Aah." He yelped as a razor blade fell out and nicked him on the finger.

"Someone's popular." Yuuto joked.

"Bet your one has twice as many, at least." Issei said. Yuuto opened his locker so that the pair could verify, and two razor blades along with three love letters fell out. "The school really needs lockers with flat tops, it's dangerous if the top item falls out every time it's opened."

"I'll tell you what, let's have a wager." Yuuto said looking devious, something that only Issei had ever really seen, when you hang around with mostly women and always act like a gentleman it's hard to find a time to cut loose and have some stupid boyish fun. It was one of the things that Issei respected most in him, that despite being popular with the girls and acting like a prince he could still cut loose and act like a boy his age when he wanted to.

"This sounds like a terrible idea, what do you have in mind?" Issei asked a grin covering his face.

"Whoever gets the most razor blades in their locker by the time you get your next peerage member and start your club wins." Yuuto said plainly.

"And what are we betting." Issei asked intrigued.

"If I win, I get to name your club." Issei said.

"And If I win you need to walk into the girls art club and offer to model nude for them." Issei replied.

"Deal?" Yuuto said putting his hand out for Issei to shake. Issei grabbed it and the pair shook hands. The pair shared a hearty laugh and they made their way to the old school building.

When the three first years arrived at the old school building they entered and went into the main room to meet with the president.

"Hey prez." Kiba said,

"Welcome you three, I'm glad to see you are doing better than last night Ms Murayama, I am Rias Gremory, I'm helping Issei out with being a devil for a while so feel free to ask if you have any problems, I am still technically your 'senpai' after all." Rias said with a smile.

"Thank you for having me. And please call me Kaori, I can imagine we will be seeing each other rather often in the future" Kaori responded.

"Very well then Kaori. I trust my knight has sorted you out with a weapon already." Rias said

"Indeed, we got it all sorted at lunch, well everything but the name."

"So Murayama, have you got a name for the sword yet?" Yuuto asked.

"Yep, I'm gonna call it the 'Shototsu Koeda'" Kaori responded. Most of the club burst out laughing at the name with the exception of Rias who didn't get the joke and Koneko who wasn't paying attention.

"Collision twig, really? that's great." Issei said through chuckles.

"Anyway you two can get started on contracts tonight, I had my familiar hand out some of your circles instead of mine today so hopefully you will get some requests, I'll make sure that one of my servants comes with you for each request to make sure it goes well." Rias said.

That night Issei and Kaori had their first contracts. Issei was paired up with Akeno and Kaori was joined by Yuuto. Issei's request came from a young woman by the name of Momo, when Issei showed up he was greeted by the pink haired woman who was wearing a full 'Kaben Rider Pinky' cosplay. She wanted someone to act out scenes from the show with her, but since Issei hadn't seen the latest season (Grayfia didn't take nights off his lessons so Issei had no time to catch up on the show.) so they just ended up binging the entire season, Akeno excused herself as the two sat down to watch it, reminding Issei to collect payment when he was done. When all was said and done she gave him the boxset as payment, claiming that she could just buy another one, then said that they could act out some scenes next time. The retail value of the box set was about 6000 yen so Issei was feeling rather pleased with himself once he teleported back to the old school building. Rias informed him that since he was his own king and he earned the payment himself he could do with it as he pleased, so Issei took it home and placed it next to the other 'Kaben Rider Pinky' merchandise he had in his room. That was when Issei finally saw the marking on the box, It was signed, by none other than Momo Momozono. It was then that everything finally clicked. He knew that the girl who summoned him looked familiar, the costume was identical to the one used in the show. She even sounded identical to her character whenever she repeated a line from the show. Momo was the star of the show that he had just spent the evening binge watching with her. A part of him was kicking himself for not recognising her. But another smarter part was telling him that it may be for the best that he plays it down, if she knew that he was a fan of hers it might scare her off.

Meanwhile Kaori and Yuuto were summoned by an elderly woman, she was having trouble figuring out how to add her grandson on facebook. After they managed to talk her through plugging in the screen to the computer and helping her send the friend request they were paid with a pretty old looking handbag, when they got back to the ORC Rias commended them on her first contract going well and told her about the stipend she would be getting in the future. Kaori thanked her and made her way home. She checked her phone on the way and saw that she had a message from Yui, she wanted to hang out at the weekend, Kaori messaged Issei and he said that they didn't have anything planned for that day so she was in the clear to go.

-timeskip-

It has now been a month since Issei started at Kuoh academy. Issei and Kaori had gone on a stray hunt with Sona and her peerage last week and that thankfully ended with less issues than his first one. However there was another, far more serious issue about to present itself.

Kaori's phone went off as she, Yui and Issei were sat eating lunch, Yuuto was off running an errand for Rias today. When she took out her phone her face went white. Issei noticed this immediately and stopped what he was saying.

"Everything ok Kaori?" Issei asked.

"Afraid not, seems like my dad got a promotion." Kaori said dejectedly as she put her phone in her pocket.

"Isn't that good." Yui asked.

"For him, yes, for mum, yes, for me, not so much. His promotion means he needs to move branch, to kyoto." Kaori said.

"Oh." was all Issei could say in response. He made a mental note to deal with this later.

"So you will need to move away?" Yui asked, a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Maybe." Kaori responded.

"If you leave, want me to take care of your boyfriend for you?" Yui said with a massive grin.

"We aren't like that, for the last time, she doesn't like me like that." Issei said, Kaori turned and looked away from him in frustration. The bell rung shortly after that.

"I'll talk to you after class, alright Kaori, we'll get this sorted." Issei said before the three took off for class.

After class Issei and Kaori made their way to his home, he had contacted his mother in hopes that she might be able to help them figure out a solution. When he got inside he was surprised to see not only his mother, but his father and little brother were all present and accounted for.

"Hey guys, did I do something wrong?" Issei asked as he entered the living room.

"Do you just assume that when I am here that you are in trouble?" Sirzechs asked.

"Am i?" Issei asked.

"No, I was just with your father when I got your message so we decided to all come and visit you." Grayfia responded. "So what is the issue that has you bothered?" she asked.

"Well Kaori's dad got a promotion so her family is moving away, naturally since she is my knight It would be stupid to let her go with them and leave her alone, I was hoping you could help us come up with a solution." Issei responded.

"Why not just get her to move in with you?" Sirzechs asked.

"Huh?" Issei and Kaori said at the same time.

"I mean, you have the space, and if the problem is her being alone then this means you won't need to worry about her as much." Sirzechs explained.

"Yes because I can just say to my dad, 'hey I don't want to move with you guys so I'm gonna move in with a boy instead.'" Kaori responded sarcastically.

Sirzechs laughed enjoying the girls sarcasm, in his line of work he rarely met people that had a sense of humour, even less willing to show it in front of him. "Leave that to us."

Millicus came up to Issei and tugged on his shirt, "since I'm here can we play video games big bro?"

"Sure thing." Issei said taking his younger brother up to his bedroom.

"Alright then, let's head for your place and we will talk things over with your parents." Sirzechs said.

The following day Kaori's parents were taking off for Kyoto, Sirzechs and Grayfia had managed to talk them into letting Kaori stay with Issei and sorted them out with a house in Kyoto, how they had it sorted out overnight was beyond Kaori but sure enough by the time she got home from school they were already packed and preparing to depart.

"Take care sweetie." Her mother said giving her a hug.

"Take good care of her alright boy." Her father said to Issei, who had come along to help move her stuff.

"Of course sir, I'll take care of her like my own family." Issei responded.

"Good." Her father scoffed. Sure he had agreed to let her stay with the boy, but he knew about her crush on him and any father would dislike the boy who took their daughter from them.

The pair got into their car and took off then,

"You ok?" Issei asked. Kaori took a deep breath and nodded.

"I'll be fine." She replied, she knew that she wanted this but it still scared her a little, losing her parents like this.

"Shall we start moving your stuff then?" Issei asked. Walking to the door.

"Alright then," Kaori responded. They then entered her house and went to her room.

When they got in Issei noted that everything was already in boxes.

"You know we are teleporting everything, you didn't need to pack them all up." Issei said.

"Well this way you won't see all my stuff." Kaori said. "I can't have you stealing some of my underwear and claiming it 'went missing in the move'" Kaori said.

Issei made the magic circle on the floor and groaned. "Just help me with the desk."

The pair spent the next hour or so moving all of her stuff to a spare room in Issei's house, they skipped the bed, since the one in her new room was bigger anyway. When they were finished they ordered take away and Issei left Kaori to get settled in whilst they waited for it to arrive. She decided to call up Yui and talk to her friend about the past two day's events.

"Hey, how's it going?" Yui asked.

"Hey, I managed to get it sorted with my parents last night so I'm getting to stay in Kuoh." Kaori said excitedly.

"That's awesome, so your gonna be living alone?" Yui asked.

"Not exactly." Kaori said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yui inquired.

"I'm kinda, staying at Issei's house, permanently." Kaori responded.

"How the hell did you convince them to let you stay with your boyfriend." Yui screamed into the phone.

"His parents had a talk with them and convinced them that it was the best solution." Kaori responded.

"Alright, listen here, this is a golden opportunity for you and if you don't take advantage of it, then I will swoop in and take it from you." Yui said.

"What do you mean?" Kaori asked, confused.

"Despite all my help your relationship is the same as it was a month ago. Tomorrow morning when he wakes up make him breakfast or something, guys like that kind of stuff right." Yui said. "You are living with the boy so take this chance to get with him."

"Goodbye." Kaori said distraught with her friends interest in her relationship with her king.

"Wait, don't ha-" Yui was shouting through the phone as Kaori hung up on her.

Kaori buried her head in her pillows and let out a muffled scream. 'I suppose I could give him a bit of a show at least.' Kaori finally conceded, she released her bra and took it off, leaving her shirt on still. It's not explicitly asking him to look at her, and she can just claim that she usually goes without a bra at home, since this is her home now, their home. She blushed when she thought of it as their home. She gave herself a once over in the mirror and went downstairs to wait for food with her king.


	5. Chapter 5 - Enter the Phenex

Authors note - This chapter took a while for two reasons, one I wasn't sure the order of the next two girls, I've decided now and they happen simultaneously, two after reading the review from Xion, who raised a number of good issues, which I am going to address in future chapters. For now though I hope you enjoy this new chapter

It's been about a week since Kaori moved in with Issei and things have been going well for the devils. Issei has gotten summoned by Momo repeatedly, each time she had some mundane enough request for him and the two of them became rather good friends. Currently the pair are going through the script for the upcoming movie that starts filming in a fortnight.

"You have fallen for my trap now prepare to suffer foul demon of hell." Momo announced jumping up on her couch.

"You don't seem to understand Pinky, It wasn't you who trapped me, but I who trapped you." Issei said followed by a cackling laugh.

"How is that possible, how could you have known what we were planning?" Momo said in feigned shock.

"I have already won the loyalty of one of your own, now Kaben Silver." Issei said posing like a super villain.

"There are games being played on so many levels here that you could never understand Pinky." Issei said in a different voice.

"Silver how could you?" Momo asked in feigned disbelief.

"In order to spring my own trap." Issei said.

"What?" Issei said in his demon king voice.

"You are already dead." Issei said in the hero voice.

"NOOOO" issei cried out.

"Silver, you saved us, thank you." Momo said.

"I know." Issei said in the hero voice.

"I want you to know Silver I ha-" Momo said.

"Not now Pinky, for you see, I'm dying." Issei said.

"I know, I've always known, somehow." Momo said solemnly.

"Goodbye Pinky." Issei said.

Issei and Momo both burst out laughing at the script. "What an awful ending." Issei said.

"Well the company can only afford to have the actor playing Silver for the movie and it would be a pain to keep him on for the next season." Momo responded, sitting back down.

"Probably for the best, I doubt he will be well received, except by teenage girls." Issei said.

"Well at the very least it give the marketing team more to sell. You can only sell the same face with a new costume so many times." Momo said.

"I disagree, me and some old friends of mine had like 8 of the same figure of you between us." Issei said.

"That's a little pathetic." Momo deadpanned.

"Ouch." Issei replied.

"Anyway it's getting late and at least one of us needs to sleep so here." She handed Issei a signed poster, "Sorry it's a duplicate from last time but we had some leftovers at the office, pretty sure it will still sell though."

"Thanks, I guess I'll catch you later Pinky." issei said creating a magic circle.

"Yeah, later." She said.

Meanwhile Kaori Murayama was having a far more interesting night. She received a summon request from a new client, when she answered the summons and went to the client. She seemed to be summoned by a teenage girl if the layout of the room was any indication, the books on the desk were the same as the ones she had, advanced mathematics, english for dummies, A brief history of Kendo. That was odd, they were the exact same. She looked a little more and noticed a shinai resting against the wall as well. She gulped worried that this person may recognise her. "Hey." There was a scared and very recognisable voice coming from her right. Kaori turned and saw her best friend, Yui Katase on the floor clearly shocked that the summoning circle worked, and even more shocked that it was Kaori that came through.

"Hey." Kaori said tentatively. "You called?"

After a couple minutes were spent calming Yui down and explaining that she wasn't dreaming. The two were able to actually discuss what was going on. "So you are a devil?" Yui asked her friend.

"Yep, Been one for a little over a month now." Kaori responded.

"Wait so you can become a devil, how?" Yui asked.

"Well It happened when a stray devil, one that went against their master and killed them or ran away, was sexually assaulting girls around town. The local devils were hunting it and they managed to track it down just as he was about to attack me, but he had already hypnotised me so I fought against the devils. They managed to stop me and almost killed the stray when I got free and took the hit for it whilst still hypnotised. I would have died if I wasn't revived by my master." Kaori said, carefully avoiding giving away any names, she didn't want to bother Issei or Rias with this.

"Your master? Oh my so you are a slave now?" Yui asked worriedly.

"It's not like that, my work involved answering summons like this, handing out those flyers and hunting strays, he isn't, you know, Ise wouldn't do that." Kaori said going red at the implication.

"ISE? You mean Issei Gremory, your crush and housemate, is a devil?" Yui shouted.

"Quiet down." Kaori said, but then nodded. "If not for him I would be dead right now, what's more since I am his servant now there are a few perks that come with it."

"Like?" Yui asked intrigued.

"Well one, I get my own room at his house, a nice salary for working as a devil, since his family is on the school board I get my tuition paid for by them, they will even cover collage if I end up going there. Then there is the stuff for becoming a devil, I don't get tired nearly as easily, I can get by on 4 hours sleep as If i had gotten 8, I can run to school and back flat out without getting tired. I'm much stronger now too, and since I was made into a Knight I even get a massive speed boost, see." Kaori explained then dashed to the other side of the room, throwing papers up in the air as she passed then grabbed the shinai and ran back.

"Awesome, I wanna be a devil too." Yui exclaimed in awe at her friends performance.

Kaori was shocked at this, she wasn't expecting her best friend to sign up to be a devil. "Well I could see about talking to Ise about it, but i doubt it."

Yui looked disheartened. "Why is that?"

"You see I have this thing called a sacred gear, it was given to me by god, and it lets me go faster everytime I hit someone. Whilst I would love you to join us so we could hang out more It is Ise's decision." Kaori said.

"Oh" Yui said sadly.

"Well then, now that I have explained myself, why exactly was it that you needed to summon a devil to do your bidding?" Kaori asked playfully

"Well I wanted to, It's super embarrassing, if It's you that I'm asking, I don't really want to ask for it now." Yui said going quite red.

"Trust me I will be completely professional, i'm here on business after all." Kaori responded.

-Timeskip-

Kaori got back home shortly after Issei did and was greeted by Ise in the living room, he was fiddling with one of his evil pieces, the other knight and seemed deep in though. "I'm back." Kaori announced snapping Issei out of his thoughts.

"Oh sorry. Welcome back" Issei said turning his attention back to his knight. "How was tonight?"

"Interesting." Kaori said.

"Interesting?" Issei asked.

"It was Yui that summoned me." Kaori said.

"Oh no." Issei said. "So what did you do?"

"I got a contract." Kaori said holding up a pillow humorously.

"What did she want that was just worth a pillow?" Issei asked.

"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say, but that wasn't all. She asked if she could become a devil too." Kaori said flatly

"That was something I wanted to talk to you about actually. After I managed to tune out detecting your sacred gear when I try and look for them I was able to notice another one, specifically coming from Katase."

"Seriously, do you any idea what it is?" Kaori asked.

"We had no idea what yours was until we fought you, so I doubt we will find out any time soon, until then let's see how serious she is about this." Issei said.

The following day once Issei and Kaori got back home from school there was another person already in the house.

"You are late mister" a girl a year younger than the pair yelled from the door as the two began walking to the door.

"Ravel, I told you I have school today, it's fine if you come over early but don't expect me to be back until 4." Issei said to the now named Ravel who was pouting towards him.

"Want me to go and make some tea?" Kaori offered as they walked into the house.

"It's fine I already made some and some cake." Ravel said as she went and sat down on the sofa facing the large T.V.

"I'll head upstairs and leave you two be then." Kaori said taking off up the stairs.

"So Ravel what are we watching today?" Issei asked taking a seat next to her.

"This one is about a princess who wins over a guy's heart with her cooking." Ravel said pressing play on the remote. Ravel and Issei had become friends shortly after Issei went to the underworld the first time.

-flashback-

 **I actually intend to restructure again so that this is set before the start of the murayama section but the chapter will be a flashback for now.**

Waking up the day after he met his parents Issei was worried that it might have need a dream. He checked his phone and saw the picture of the he had taken last night staring back at him. Everything was real. He had a family again. He wasn't abandoned, he was kidnapped and most importantly, he was a devil.

That last part was super important. Not being human was a shocker but he was slowly coming to terms with it, it explained a lot as well, he was always a lot stronger than he looked, he was never really tired at night, heck he even He went downstairs to the kitchen and fixed himself some breakfast. It was a weekend so he had the day off. Apparently he was going to be brought to meet with the rest of the family later today.

Once Grayfia showed up Issei greeted her with a hug which caused her to lose her composure for a moment before beginning his lecture on how to act today.

"First of all. No wandering eyes, everyone you will meet today is family. Second let us do most of the talking. Finally don't be afraid to ask questions, you are just being brought into the supernatural world so ask away."

"Yes mother" Issei said.

"Good now let's look out what you have to wear today"

Issue ended up in smart casual clothes. A simple shirt with jeans. Grayfia created a magic circle and motioned for Issei to join her. The two teleported to the Gremory mansion and were met by Sirzechs in the main hall.

"Hello Father." Issei said tentatively, Sirzechs was very well dressed in what appeared to be some kind of robe, it looked like he was a final boss or something.

"Hey Issei, how you feeling?" Sirzechs asked, their conversation was stilted at best, neither was quite sure how to act around each other, after all suddenly being told that he have a family again was messing with Issei's head. Sirzechs on the other hand had no idea what kind of person Issei was, but he was looking forwards to getting to know his son.

"Terrified." Issei deadpanned.

"Don't worry, you will do fine." Sirzechs assured his son with a hand on his shoulder, "now come on lets not keep your grandparents waiting."

Entering the dining room Issei hid behind his parents. He saw sat at the table two young looking women, a mature looking man and a young boy, the boy looked like Issei did when he was younger except he had red hair like his father. Issei recognised the red haired woman as Rias, Kiba's master and his aunt. Which left him to assume that the last two were his paternal grandparents. The man had their families signature red hair whereas his grandmother seemed to be where Issei got his brown hair from.

"Oh Sirzechs, Grayfia, what a surprise, we haven't had you two visit together for so long." the older woman said. "Tell me is it for work or pleasure?" her face looking almost disappointed that they might answer with the former.

"A bit of both actually. For you see, we have some very, very good news." Sirzechs said barely containing his excitement, for someone of his stature getting to not only see his family, but have good news to share when doing so was rare. Rias had a very self satisfied look on her face.

"And judging by your sisters face I assume she knows about it already?" The older man said sternly.

"Only because she was the one that found out first, she was the one that told me about him." Sirzechs said.

"Him?" Venelana asked thinking through the possibilities in her head, then she took a second to notice the power that Grayfia and her son seemed to be trying to hide behind them. It felt so familiar to her. "It couldn't be." She was shocked.

"What?" Her husband asked, Zeoticus putting down his cutlery to pay full attention to the situation.

"Yes, a few months ago a particularly interesting person showed up when we were dealing with a stray devil, a devil, pure blooded, that could control the power of destruction and high tier ice magic. I approached Grayfia yesterday about it and that night I had Kiba bring him along so we could meet him." Rias explained,

"Once I saw him I was almost brought to tears, you are correct in your assumption lady Gremory, last night we found our lost son." Grayfia said keeping her composure but hiding a very satisfied smile.

"Lucius, you found him?" Zeocticus asked in shock.

"Whilst he isn't going by that name anymore, allow me to introduce, Issei Gremory, our eldest son. Your older brother, Millicas." Sirzechs said triumphantly.

"Uh hi." Issei said stepping out from behind his parents to face his family for the first time, at age 16.

The family sat down and ate together and talked with Issei about things. Issei explained how he was adopted by the Hyoudou family and that they had sadly died in a trainwreck in the summer. Eventually they reached now and what happens next.

"So Issei, you said you were going to be starting at Kuoh next year right?" Zeoticus asked.

"Yes, I already have everything sorted out, I just need to get the uniform and make it to the end of this year." Issei explained.

"Well we will need to make sure you meet with Sona before then, we want to avoid any misunderstandings once you get there." Zeoticus explained. "See the heiress of the Sitri family, another high class devil family, controls the student council there and I can imagine they will want to know if we send another child along to the school.

"Actually we should probably make the rest of the devil world aware that we have found him." Grayfia mentioned.

"Good point, but before that we will need to make sure that Issei gets a feel for the underworld. Can't make him the centre of attention without him knowing what is what." Sirzechs said. "How would you feel about heading out tomorrow for a bit Issei? You and Grayfia can head out and see the sights. Learn a bit about the underworld before you are thrown head first into social situations."

"That actually sounds like a lot of fun. It could be fun to just go and explore a little." Issei said.

"Alright, then you and Grayfia can head out tomorrow." Zeoticus said. "Which reminds me, do we have a room for Issei for the night?"

"I already set one up ahead of time my lord." Grayfia said.

"None of that right now, you are family and now is a time for celebration." Zeoticus said. "Lazarus, get the Sake." A butler nodded and went to grab a bottle.

"Sake?" Issei asked quietly.

Rias leaned over and told him

"Most of the family are really into Japanese culture, Dad particularly likes the drinks. Mom claims to not be interested but I saw her reading a manga once and she seemed to be enjoying it. Millicas just started Drago-so ball."

"Aaah." Issei exclaimed.

The following day Issei woke up in the room that his mother had prepared for him in his grandparents mansion. The room was almost as big as his own house. He remembered that he was supposed to head out with his mother today so he went and got into the shower in his en suite bathroom before getting into some casual clothes. Once he was done there was a knock at his door.

"Hello?" he replied.

"Issei, it's me." his mother called.

"Oh, in you come." Issei said. The door opened and she walked in in her usual maid outfit.

"Oh you are already dressed?" She asked.

"Yeah, i got up a while ago and since we are heading out today I figured I would just get ready." Issei explained.

"Well you are the first person in the house to wake up, well except for the servants." Grayfia said.

"And you." Issei said.

"Well i fall under servants. Since I am the head maid of the Gremory family. But I am still your mother so don't think you can get mouthy with me." Grayfia said smiling a bit.

"Well, shall we get going?" Issei asked.

"Breakfast first?" Grayfia asked.

"Good point, lead the way mom." Issei said, Grayfia was taken aback by getting called mom, but she quickly buried it, hopefully things would keep going this well.

Issei and Grayfia walked around town for a few hours. They went to a few famous historical sites and a museum giving Grayfia a good chance to catch Issei up on devil history. After that they went to a mall so Issei could see the similarities and differences between devil culture and human culture. Whilst they were walking around Issei and Grayfia were seperated from one another when Issei spotted a poster outside a movie theatre that caught his eye and the next thing he knew he couldn't see Grayfia anywhere. Not only that he couldn't call her or anyone else since he only had Kiba's phone number and he wasn't answering. Issei was turned around and a little lost when a voice called out to him.

"You there." A young girl's voice called to him in an aggressive tone. Issei turned towards the direction of the voice and he saw a girl, about a year younger than him, she had blonde hair in twin drills from either side of her head. She was wearing a red dress and was pointing at him aggressively. "You are to accompany me." The girl demanded walking over to Issei

"Accompany you?" Issei asked.

"Yes, the fool at the desk over there says I am too young to see this movie but he said if I had someone with me it would be fine. So you will take me to see the movie." The girl said with a smirk.

"Don't you have any family you can ask?" Issei said.

"W-They are all very busy right now so i need to see it myself." The girl said with a huff.

"What's this movie even about?" Issei asked.

"You haven't heard of it yet?" The girl asked.

"No?" Issei said.

"It's the third time they made this story into a movie, it's based on the true story of Sirzrchs Lucifer and Grayfia Lucifruge and how they first fell in love." The girl explained.

"Seriously?" Issei asked in disbelief.

"You've never heard of it? It's the most popular love story in the underworld." The girl said.

"Well i've gotta see it now." Issei said before remembering. "But I don't have any money yet."

"Then how about this, I buy you a ticket and you come see it with me so we can both watch it." The girl offered.

"That would be awesome. I'm Issei by the way, but my friends call me Ise."

"Well then Issei-san, I am Ravel Phenex." The girl, now called Ravel said entering the movie theatre alongside Issei.

Once the two were sat and watching the movie Issei watched in awe as they seemed to use magic to make the actors look identical to their real life counterparts.

"So it's all come down to this Grayfia-chan." 'Sirzechs' said as the two got into battle positions in a destroyed city.

"Indeed, Gremory, I must say you have proven to be quite tenacious, no other devil has faced me this many times and lived to tell the tale." 'Grayfia' said as she began creating a magic circle. The two began casting spell after spell as Ice spears launched endlessly at 'Sirzechs' who used his power of destruction to decimate them before they could reach him.

"You know, we don't need to fight like this." 'Sirzechs' offered.

"Of course we do, traitor." 'Grayfia' said doubling the number of circles she was casting with.

"You could always just lose and become my wife instead." 'Sirzechs' said with a smirk this caused his opponent to blush and be startled for a moment and he rushed her and stole a kiss which the pair sank into as the battle raged in the background. The final scenes consisted of the two working together in order to finish off the old satan faction and their eventual wedding After that the credits began to roll. Issei looked to his side and saw that Ravel clearly loved the movie.

"So I'm guessing you enjoyed yourself?" Issei said.

"It was good but the final fight was better in the original." Ravel said. "They even stole the line verbatim."

"I'll need to watch it some time." Issei noted before getting up from his seat. "Come on, you ready to leave?"

Once the two left the movie theatre it was around dinner time and Issei decided he should probably look for his mother. He took out his phone but remembered that the only devil who's number he had was Kiba's and that might not even be useful right now. Fortunately the crowd had died down a bit so he tried to look for her.

"What are you doing with my sister?" a loud and angry voice called and walked over to Issei, he turned and saw a tall man with blonde hair storming over to him. The loud voice clearly drew attention to them as most onlookers turned and began commenting on the approaching blonde.

"Onii-sama, what are you doing here?" Ravel asked.

"Looking for you. Mom and dad said you went out." The man said grabbing Issei's shirt. "Who is this worm, did he lay a hand on you?"

"I'm Issei-" Issei attempted to introduce himself when suddenly a massive flaming orb was in his face.

"I didn't ask you worm." The man said when all of a sudden a freezing chill came over them both.

"There you are Issei." A relieved but angry voice came from nearby. The three devils turned and saw Grayfia walking over looking displeased.

"Grayfia-san, to what do I owe the pleasure?" The man asked.

"Raiser Phenex, I would ask you to unhand my son." Grayfia said sternly, Raiser complied.

"Your son?" Ravel said shocked as she looked between Grayfia and Issei

"Indeed, Issei Gremory, myself and Sirzechs' eldest son." Grayfia explained "Now then, Issei It is time we got back, don't you agree?"

Issei nodded and followed after his mother, before turning and saying.

"I'll talk to you later Ravel, thanks for the movie."

Issei got a stern talking to from Grayfia once they got back to the mansion, but he had to get back to earth so after dinner when he explained what happened, much to Grayfia and Sirzechs embarrassment at hearing their son had seen the movie they made of their love story. He spent a while getting to know his younger brother before heading back to earth to be ready for school the next day.

After that Issei and Ravel met up so he could watch her copy of the original and first remake of the movie about Sirzechs and Grayfia. After that the two kept meeting to watch other movies, mostly romances since that was what Ravel enjoyed the most. Issei kept watching because he enjoyed hanging out with Ravel and he was learning a lot about devils from watching their movies.

-back to present-

Issei and Ravel watched the movie together and laughed along with one another at it. Once

The movie was over the two talked for a bit.

"Ravel aren't you in your brothers peerage? Do you have time to come and watch movies with me? Doesn't he have duties" Issei asked.

"Well even though i'm technically in his peerage he doesn't treat me the same as the rest of them. I get to come and go as i please." Ravel explained.

"What do you mean? What does he do with them that he doesn't with you?" Issei asked.

Ravel went red at that and sputtered. "Well right now Onii-sama is, well he is 'with' his peerage."

"With?" Issei asked with genuine curiosity.

"He's well 'training' with them." Ravel said still beet red.

"I'm still not following?" Issei said, Ravels insinuation clearly going over his head.

"They are, sleeping together." Ravel said quietly but bluntly.

Issei pulled back shocked. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, it's the whole reason he made his entire peerage all women." Ravel said dejectedly.

"And he wants Rias on top of, what, 14 other women?" Issei asked.

"Yep." Ravel said quietly.

"Next time you see him tell him to quit hogging." Issei said with a massive grin.

Ravel smacked him on the arm. "Issei, how uncouth."

"Sorry, it's every guys dream to have a bunch of girls falling over him." Issei claimed.

"Even yours?" Ravel asked with a red face.

"Well it used to be, now, I'm not entirely sure. I mean when I was growing up I was always quite open about that fact about me, but now that I'm a devil and I can actually get a harem, I'm not even entirely sure I want one." Issei explained

"Well what changed?" Ravel asked.

"When I got my evil pieces I was sure I was going to use them to make a harem, It felt like the kind of thing I would do, but once I actually started looking for people I had to think long and hard about who I wanted in my peerage. All of a sudden I wanted to make sure that I would still be friends with them 1000 years from now instead of just the most attractive girls. I ended up reviving Kaori after she died on a stray devil hunt, after that I was certain, my peerage needs to be strong, strong enough to stop anyone from dying like that again." Issei said with a fire in his eyes.

"Can I join?" Ravel asked. Issei turned and gave her a quizzical look.

"Can you?" He replied "Like, can you even take someone else's piece?"

"Well you can trade pieces. I can ask onii-sama if he will trade my piece for one of your spare ones." Ravel said.

"If you want to, then I'm ok with it." Issei said a little taken aback with the offer. "I've got another spare room anyway so…"

"Alright then, I'll ask Onii-sama later. I've got to get going but I'll see you later." Ravel said getting up and creating a magic circle to leave.

"Alright then, I'll talk to you later Ravel." Issei said as his friend left.

Kaori came down the stairs and began picking up the dishes and glasses from Issei and Ravel's movie night. She was wearing a loose top which said '3031st street' in graffiti style and a pair of hot pants. "So good night?" She asked Issei as he got up to give her a hand.

"It was alright, movie was decent." Issei said. "Ravel is going to ask her brother if we can trade bishops, so that might happen."

"So I might finally get a hand taking care of your lazy ass." Kaori joked.

"Hey I help." Issei defended.

"Not much." Kaori said offhandedly as the pair entered the kitchen to do the dishes and make dinner. "Speaking of new peerage members, any call on Yui?"

"I'm not sure, I want to hold off on making a rash decision." Issei said

"Like you did with me?" Kaori said.

"Hey you just died in my arms there, and I only found out I could revive people if they died, I needed to test it out." Issei claimed.

"So what's this about you making a harem?" Kaori asked causing Issei to accidentally crush the sponge he was using, causing suds to miraculously miss him and shoot out all over Kaori leaving her shirt wet and covered in soap bubbles.

"Did you hear that?" Issei asked averting his eyes after a quick peek.

"Oh yeah, so you planned on having just pretty girls in your peerage?" Kaori said, turning his head to look at her. "But you changed your mind after you decided to get my to join?"

"Around that time yeah." Issei said.

"Is that supposed to mean that you don't think I'm attractive?" Kaori asked sounding a little annoyed.

"What of course not." Issei said sounding offended. "Have you seen yourself? The kendo training cutting down any extra fat from you and giving you a great athletic body. Your hair is a great colour and texture and if frames your face in a way that just makes all of your features pop. And that's without me even getting started on your boobs." Issei said before realising what he had said and silencing himself.

Kaori just looked on, red in the face, in a shocked silence.

"What I mean is, I decided that I wanted people that I could trust and get along with in my peerage and that looks would be secondary." Issei tried to explain but Kaori just stood there still shocked.

"Idiot." Kaori said imperceptibly.


	6. Chapter 6 - A very angry brother

**See it's not abandoned, although it would be considered as such by law.**

The following day at school it was the start of the planning for the school's culture festival. So Issei's class had to decide what they were going to do. There were a few rather basic suggestions, but the far and away winner was a Maid cafe. Why, because it gave the girls an excuse to force Kiba and to a lesser extent Issei, to dress up in butler uniforms. Both of them tried to convince the rest of the class that it wouldn't be that easy but the girls voted them down, Including Kaori. Once the votes were all counted Issei turned to his side and whispered to the knight. "Traitor." She just turned and gave him a big smile.

It was decided that the Issei would be on the team getting the room set up. To host the cafe, Kiba was quickly grouped up with a group of girls who would handle the costumes to act as a model for them, Issei told him that he wasn't bothered with what the girls got them to wear but to make sure that the girls would regret their decision for the event. A knowing smirk shared between the two sent shivers down the spine of Kaori who was watching the two chat. "Sometimes the hearing can be a pain." She said quietly only Yui was close enough to hear her.

"What did they say?" She asked.

"You're better off in the dark." Her friend replied. "Anyway, what days can you stay back?" Kaori was currently organising the group who were working on the tables, layout and decorations since she Yui and Issei were all in that group she thought it would be a good chance to get the two to actually talk.

"I'm good for Mondays and Thursdays," Yui said.

"Alright, I'm clear on Thursdays but I'm busy with stuff on Monday" A bold faced lie but Kaori needed to set her friend and her king up with some alone time, and since Issei had Ravel over most Thursdays and they took Mondays off of devil work, it would be perfect like this.

"I've got Mondays off," Issei said not noticing what his scheming knight had said.

Once all of their group had said when they can do and when they cant'

"Alright then, I'll get the rota organised for our group." Kaori sat down at her seat and began to write.

-In the underworld-

"Damn that brat." Riser Phenex said as he continued to get his anger out. His queen, who was directly beneath him at that moment, knew what was wrong. She was there when his sister came home and asked if he would trade her away. That got him mad. He loved his sister, it was common for devils to dote on their younger sisters, and naturally, he hated the man who wanted to take her away from him.

"M-M-master." Yubelluna choked out beneath him. He got off of her and the two sat on the bed. She put her arms around his neck and pressed herself against his back. "If it's what she wants, shouldn't you let her make her own choices?" She said taking a chance on the idea that he might actually take some advice for once, he has listened to her before, usually at a time like this, just after he had his way with her. He was more understanding after getting it all out.

"Riser can't, Riser won't let her make a mistake like this, running off with the first guy she meets, It's a horrible idea." Riser said

"That's what I did, heck that's what half the girls in your peerage did," Yubelluna said.

"Yes, but that was with Riser, Riser trusts Riser, Riser can't trust this boy." Riser said missing the look Yubelluna gave him.

"Why don't we go and meet with the boy? Then you might be able to get something out of him. Maybe even convince him not to go through with it." Yubelluna said. "You can even visit Rias when you do."

"Riser likes that idea." Riser said laying back down on the bed as his queen mounted him.

-Back in Kuoh, Monday after-school-

"Alright, with this we can get 43 people in at once," Yui said.

"That's the most we could get in the classroom comfortably," Issei said.

"Unless you used magic," Yui noted.

"Not so loud," Issei said putting a hand over her mouth. "EWW," he said taking his hand back and wiping the saliva off it. "Why would you do that?" he asked.

"Habit, friends have done the same thing since kindergarten," Yui explained. "And besides no one would believe that you can actually use magic."

Issei's phone went off at that moment.

Issei gave a stern look to Yui before pressing answer, "Hey man what's up."

Kiba's voice spoke out loud over a number of girls voices speaking excitedly in the background. "Hey, Issei you mind telling Buchou that I'll be running late, I'm being dragged off to act as a dress-up doll."

"Yeah alright man, have fun you damn playboy." Issei cursed his friend. "We are done here now so I was just about to head over there."

Issei arrived at the ORC to an unfortunate scene. Riser Phenex was sat on one of the sofas with his queen in his arm as he continued to ask Rias to come and sit on his lap. The sight of it made Issei feel a little sick. He was even hitting on Kaori despite Ravel who was also there and trying to mediate repeatedly telling him to stop. He disregarded his sister's complaints.

"Riser Phenex, It's good to meet you under better circumstances." Issei started through scathing teeth.

"Issei Gremory, you have a lot of nerve asking for Riser's sister in a trade. Especially for a spare piece." Riser said.

"Well to be fair, Ravel was the one who offered," Issei stated.

"You dare contradict Riser?" The elder Phoenix asked.

"Brother calm down. Ise is my friend and a member of the Gremory family." Ravel stated.

"Friend, that is merely how he is acting now, just wait as soon as he has your piece he will use you like a toy and throw you away." Riser sated making every girl in the room's stomach turn.

"I'm nothing like that," Issei said. "I would never force a woman to do something she doesn't want, unlike someone." The pointed jab was not missed by anyone in the room and steam seemed to be running off Riser.

"You want Riser's sister, then fight for it. A rating game in one week between my peerage and your's you may borrow pieces from my fiance if you need to fill your board. I will show you what happens to those who insult Riser."

Ravel looked extremely unhappy with the outcome, everyone did but Ravel pointedly looked like she was about to bite her older brothers head off for this.

"Alright then. If I win you trade me, Ravel, if you win, I'll drop the whole thing." Issei said.

"And you'll never talk to her again." Riser said.

"Brother, don't-" Ravel tried to interject.

"Shut up Ravel, the men are talking." Riser smacked his sister with the back of his right hand to shut her up. The entire room looked stunned at his complete disregard for her. Issei was fuming.

"I'm gonna enjoy tearing that arm off, as many times as I need to," Issei said with a growl.

-timeskip-

The following day Rias and Issei were meeting with Sona to discuss what happened the previous day.

"Well, that was stupid," Sona stated as she sat with Issei and Rias in the ORC.

"It kind of slipped out." Issei said weakly.

"I said it was stupid, not wrong. Regardless you need to put as much time into recruitment as possible right now." Sona said. "Riser has a full peerage, if you are to stand a chance against him you will need at least a few more pieces."

"I can loan you Akeno, Kiba and Koneko, but that leaves you needing 8 pawns a rook and two bishops," Rias explained.

"And sadly this matter has nothing to do with the Sitri family so I cannot loan you any of mine," Sona said.

"Damn, so I'm gonna be outnumbered." Issei bit his thumb, trying to think.

"I'll help you strategise a way to win after you've done some training. But first, call your parents." Sona said sternly. "If nothing else they can train you in your magic."

"I'll get right on tha-" Issei's phone's text alert went off. "One sec." He took a look at it and his face fell.

"I need to get going, NOW." he was off in a moment.

Sona and Rias shared a concerned look, as he crashed out the doors.

-In the kendo club-

"Jesus, that Riser guy sounds insufferable, and he just straight up slapped his sister like that?" Yui asked Kaori as the two got changed.

"Yep, all because she wanted to join Issei's peerage. She literally just asked if he could trade her to someone else. Ravel stuck around after the meeting and even said that she probably should have gone better if she had another family member trade for her then get them to trade forwards. Rather than hope her brother would be reasonable." Kaori said.

"Damn I want to beat the shit out of this guy myself. Think Issei will let me join so I can get a swing at him?" Yui asked.

"Possibly, he wants as many of his own pieces going into this match and with only me at the moment he probably won't turn you down. Especially since you have a sacred gear-" They were interrupted when they spotted a magic circle in the middle of the changing room. Luckily it was just the two of them left. The others hurried out worried about peepers. Quickly Ravel appeared from the circle and looked at the two.

"Oh, crap." She said. This crude language was unbefitting of a lady like herself but the fact that another much angrier magic circle was behind her gave her reason for acting in such a manner. "You two need to get away from here."

"What's going on?" Kaori asked. Immediately a very large steel blade appeared out of thin air following it to the hilt and then the arms up to the one wielding it, Kaori could see a black haired woman in a white outfit, which displayed ample cleavage, clearly preparing to attack them.

"My brother sent his knight Siris to attack you so that Issei would need to go into the rating game alone," Ravel explained standing in front of the two girls. "Siris you are acting without permission in another devil's territory and attacking a member of the peerage of a high-class devil. This could be seen as the acts of a stray."

"Unlike you, I am merely doing as Riser-sama wishes." the knight said pointing her blade at the young blonde.

"Riser will be punished if he is indeed behind this attack. It is not the stance of the Phenex clan." Ravel said, she then took on a pleading tone. "Can't you see that even if you do this then Riser will just say you acted without him telling you to. You will become a stray." Ravel said.

"Riser-sama would never abandon me." Siris claimed, "If you will not get out of the way Ravel-sama. Then I will have to go through you. I will do as Riser-sama commanded." She slashed her sword down at the blonde. Kaori had gotten her bearings in this time and used her sword to catch the strike.

"Wasn't it me you came here to attack. It's a little insulting that you would ignore me." Kaori smirked and broke the stalemate and struck again tapping Siris on the arm. Immediately the wing stubs on Kaori's back that constituted Momentum pillage glowed and Siris' movements slowed down. Kaori deftly dodged the attack countering with another strike. Then another. Before long the invading knight was slowed to a crawl, her weapon on the floor discarded..

"You're beaten," Kaori said as the knight continued in vain to try and strike her target. Another magic circle appeared, once again of the Phenex Clan. This time Riser was the one who stepped out.

"Siris, why is she still standing. Did I not tell you to break her legs?" Riser asked contempt clear in his voice.

"Sorry, Riser-sama. Ravel-sama warned her so I was unable to-" Siris started.

"You mean, 'they kidnapped Ravel and you came to save her'?" Riser said with a smile.

"What?" Kaori yelled. "The hell is wrong with you?" She tried to strike him but he caught the sword with his hand. Kaori drained his speed but that ended the drain from Siris. She tried to pull back her sword but Riser was gripping it, hard. So hard that it was starting to give out. The weapon cracked and eventually broke into shards.

"Kaori!" Yui yelled, reaching for her friend who was already being choked by Riser. She was promptly smacked away by the brute.

"Back off." Riser continued to smirk as his hand reached up to Kaori's chest. "Let's see how much you like your king after spending some time with Riser."

A blade cut off Riser's hand Kaori was dropped to the floor as the hand fell to the ground and Riser's now stump burst into flames. His hand regenerated and he looked at the one who cut his arm off. Yui looked at him in disbelief. She gripped the zweihander she picked up off the floor tightly and a strange light appeared from her right arm, a watch appeared on her arm and Riser's hand fell off again. Riser looked confused at this and reached his other hand to the girl.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" he shouted. He punched her in the stomach. Despite the drop in speed, he was still suffering from Momentum pillage he was still a great deal stronger than his human target who was thrown across the room and crashed into some lockers knocked out cold. When this happened Riser's hand regenerated again. "Come on Ravel." Riser said, making a magic circle to get away with. His peerage followed him and moments later they were gone.

Issei barged into the room a couple of minutes later. Ravel texted him as soon as she got a moment alone. He came to Kaori first, she was coming around but he saw the state Yui was in. She was still implanted in the lockers. Issei got her down and noticed that a bent bit of metal had pierced her left lung. She drowned in her own blood as he was on his way over.

He took her body down and placed her on the ground. He summoned his evil pieces. She had only been dead for less than 10 minutes, he could still revive her. He did the same with Kaori. Someone was killed, and it was his fault. If he hadn't picked a fight with Riser then Yui wouldn't be here like this.

"Sorry." he took out his other knight. "I promise I won't let anything like this happen ever again." The knight glowed as it approached the girl's body.

"You who waits on the other side. The one who stood there since the first life came, and will leave only when the last is extinguished. I oppose you once again to demand this life. Yui Katase is to be my knight, her life is not yours to take. Break the chains of death and give her back to me." Issei chanted. A magic circle flared around the two and Yui took a deep breath and started to breathe again.

-timeskip-

Yui Katase woke up to quite the shock. She was in only her underwear, and spooning her from behind was Issei Gremory. She was just about to scream and throw him out of the bed when she noticed Kaori sat next to the bed.

"Erm? What happened?" Yui asked.

"You are far calmer than I expected." Kaori said, "Don't worry he already got an earful for even saying that he should do this. But it worked."

"Well, I'm still kind of dressed and if you are here then nothing probably happened," Yui said calmly.

"Apparently healing magic works best with as much skin contact as possible. Ise didn't tell me how you died, but, welcome to the club." Kaori said offering her friend a pair of jeans and a top.

Yui got out of the bed and put on the clothes. "So I'm a devil now too?" Yui asked.

"Yep. Finally, I'll get a hand taking care of this lazy ass." Kaori said. "Speaking off, breakfast?"

"Lets go," Yui said following Kaori to the kitchen.

Issei walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table as the two girls were still working away.

"Morning girls," Issei said.

"Morning Ise." The two replied at the same time. "Eggs and bacon?"

"Works for me," Issei replied making a quick text. The plate was placed down in front of him and he took a bite before a reply came back. "And we have the rest of the week off school."

"How?" Yui asked.

"Sona, since an idiot agreed to a rating game 5 days from now we don't really have any time to train. Quite frankly unless we have a secret weapon we are kind of screwed." Kaori stated.

"Well, yes, we are kind of screwed. Speaking of a secret weapon, Ravel mentioned something interest in her text. Apparently, you were able to cut off Riser's hand, and it stayed off." Issei said.

"Well, I cut it off with that sword. Then when he regenerated it I just got mad then it was cut off again." Yui said, looking at her hand.

"Think that was her sacred gear?" Kaori asked.

"Possibly. If only there was some expert we could ask about it." Issei wondered aloud. Suddenly the kitchen door was thrown open and an angry white-haired maid came crashing through.

"ISSEI GREMORY, What the hell did you do?" Grayfia voice reverberated around the house. She appeared in the kitchen. Her usual stern but calm look gone. She was not happy right now.

"M-mom, how did you find out about that?" Issei asked scared.

"Ravel told me. Her brother got her to organise the rating game." Grayfia said calmer than before. "Now you will tell me exactly what happened these last two days."

Issei explained the situation to Grayfia. She was far more understanding than Issei expected. Apparently, you need a certain level of training in discipline in order to be in the same room as Riser Phenex without wanting to break his ribs and even then it's still a strong desire. "Fortunately between Ravel and I, we were able to negotiate an extra week of training time for you," Grayfia stated. "Your father has said that I am free to handle your training. Miss Murayama can train with one of your father's knights. He was the one who taught Kiba."

"Actually I have my second knight now. Yui Katase," Issei gestured to the new girl who waved meekly. "Kaori's friend got caught up when Riser tried to attack her and I reincarnated her," Issei said.

"She can join the training as well then," Issei's mother nodded to her.

"Also her sacred gear apparently is quite effective against Phenex regeneration. When she chopped his hand off, he regenerated it, then she was able to use it to instantly cut it off without needing to do anything."

"Interesting. I'll have someone check the archives for any sacred gear's like that." Grayfia said.

The girls looked at the mother and son for a moment as Grayfia finished calming down. "Now then, I will organise training to start this Saturday. You will be training in the underworld so make sure you tell your parents you will be away."

"My parents won't be an issue, so I'm gonna do a little cleaning up in the master bedroom," Kaori said. Issei looked sad for a moment. "Issei, I know you don't want to, but we need to at least get it usable. Your entire peerage will move into this house at one point or another. We need the space."

Issei hesitantly nodded. "Just don't throw anything out." He knew she was right but he wasn't ready to face their room just yet. "I'll look through it when I can." He took a deep breath and looked to his newest knight.

"I'm gonna go talk to my parents about this training camp," Yui said. "They should be cool about it though."

"Alright then, meet back up here at 2 or so. We can get you started on contracts. I've got 3 appointments today, Kaori you're needed by one of your regulars and I'll take Yui to one of mine so she can see what it's about."

-timeskip-

Issei took Yui to a contract. It was a new one and the guy needed relationship advice, he had a crush on a girl and wanted to know how to make himself get noticed by her. Immediately Issei was stumped due to his own lack of success with the fairer sex. "Well, I dunno how much help I can be. I've never even kissed a girl." Issei said. Immediately Yui was in there.

"Let's see what we are working with here?" She walked around the boy. "About 14?" the boy nodded "Decently tall, hunched back though. That'll need some work, hairs all over the place." He grabbed his bangs and looked at his face. "Workable."

"Erm…" The shy boy looked worried at the sudden interest he was getting from this strange woman. Yui grabbed a paper and pen from nearby and began writing. "What are you doing miss?" the boy asked.

"First we are going to need to deal with your posture. I'm guessing you spend a lot of time on the computer?" The boy nodded. "Try and make sure you are sitting properly." The boy nodded. "Now then, let's go shopping."

"Shopping?" The boy asked.

"Yes," Yui said, Issei just shrugged in the background.

"Just go with it. If anyone can help you it's probably her." Issei said to the confused kid. "So tell me about this girl."

The three made their way to a convenience store and the boys followed Yui as she grabbed items off her list. Shampoo, hair gel, a skin cream. Afterwards, they went to a hairdresser and the boy was sat down. After two hours of a whirlwind makeover, the boy was worthy of being cursed by Issei and his old friends as a 'damn pretty boy'. "Job done," Yui said confidently, nodding.

"I've gotta say I'm impressed. Let's see what this will cost you?" Issei looked at his phone app.

"Oh, right, we needed to get paid first." Yui looked ashamed that she just took control of the situation.

"It's fine," Issei said. "You nailed it." The boy was happy with the result and Issei let Yui keep the 4500 yen payment.

"Also, since you completed a contract, you took a little bit of demonic power from him. It's not much but it all piles up." Issei explained as Yui and him returned to his house.

"Alright then. So I'll need to hand out those flyers after we get back from training?" Yui asked.

"Until we get familiars yes," Issei said vaguely. "You've got the rest of the night off, I need to get to my next contract."

-time skip-

"Who, that guy sounds like a total dick," Momo said. She and Issei were at her house once again, now acting out one of her battle scenes from Kaben Rider Pinky. She dodge-rolled backwards as Issei came in for a feigned swipe.

"Yeah, and now my peerage needs to fight him," Issei grunted accidentally damaging the wall as he struck forwards, slow enough that his client could still dodge.

"You said that word before, 'Peerage?' What is it?" Momo asked, calling for a time out and breathing heavily.

"Basically it's my servants, at the moment it's just me Yui and Kaori. And even then that's just because they were dying and I wanted to save them." Issei said.

"Servants? And you saved those girls from dying?" Momo was very confused. Issei proceeded to explain in detail how the evil pieces worked and even took out his set to show her them and what each one does. He then explained the circumstances that led to him reincarnating the two knights. Momo cried a little when she heard that they were both dying in his arms when he revived them.

"That about sums it up," Issei said. "Any questions?" Issei took a drink and stretched expecting them to do some more practice for her next episode.

"Yeah, can you show me?" Momo asked.

"Well I would but I don't really have anyone I ca-" Issei started before he noticed the weird look Momo was giving him. "I just told you we were about to battle an immortal pervert, why would you want to-" Issei was interrupted by Momo grabbing one of his pawns and holding hit against her chest.

"Devil reincarnation GO." She said aloud holding the evil piece up in the air like she was expecting it to do a magical girl transformation and turn her into a devil.

"It's not like a transformation sequence, and I need to cast the spell myself," Issei said, reaching for the evil piece. Momo held it out of his reach and as he tried to reach for it his chest pressed against hers. "If you want to join, that's fine," Issei finally relented and backed away. Momo looked pleased.

"Alright, let's do this now." She stated holding the piece out to him, a smile plastered on her face.

"Just lie down on the sofa and leave it on your chest," Issei said. Momo sat on the sofa and was about to lie down as she started to take her shirt off. "You, don't need to be shirtless, I mean it would be great if you were but-"

"Just relax Ise, I figured it would help, besides" Momo berated him. "You've seen me shirtless plenty on T.V. right?"

"Yeah but that hardly does any justice to the real you. They do all kinds of editing to mess with you and your boobs right," Issei quickly covered his mouth and looked away. "Sorry."

Momo started to laugh. "Come on Ise. just relax." She said placing the pawn between her breasts. "Come on were burning moonlight here."

Issei looked wide-eyed at her as he approached the girl lying on the sofa he smiled at her childishness but he noticed something. "This won't work."

"What do you mean?" Momo said sounding hurt she got up slightly. Issei quickly calmed her down,

"You are worth more than one pawn,"

"Aww that's sweet, bu-" Momo started but was interrupted by Issei going back to his box.

"No you are genuinely worth more than one pawn, I'll grab the others and we can see where you sit." Issei placed a second pawn on her and there was no reaction. Then a third.

"Well, that already makes you worth more than a single knight," Issei said with a smirk.

"I can't wait to gloat about that to the rest of your harem." Momo joked. Issei must have been in thought as he didn't respond at all to the comment. But given that his eyes were still on her chest she wasn't too confident that his thoughts were entirely pure. As the fourth pawn touched her skin they began to feel cold. A chill she wasn't used to. Like an ice cube being put down your top.

"It'sss c-cold." She said the chill causing her to stutter slightly..

"Really?" Issei asked since this was the first time he reincarnated someone whilst they were still conscious and alive, he was surprised that his pieces felt like anything other than just regular glass.

"But it's like... Like a snowball fight. Or putting an ice cube on someone. Fun, like you." She smiled up to him, she was right, instead of the bitter winter blizzard that one would typically associate with ice and cold. This cold was the single moment of it you get before the warm feeling in your chest when you get a snow day as a kid. "It's nice." Momo closed her eyes and waited for Issei to finish.

He held up his hand with the magic circle on it and it flared to life below her as well. "Last chance to back out." Issei prepared to finish the ritual and claim his first pawn. There was a lot more to consider, like her career, where she would stay, what their relationship would be. But right now all Issei could think of was her, the fact that she herself had said that she wanted to be his friend forever. And the large pair of breasts where his evil pawns were resting at the moment.

"Not on your life." She smiled, eyes still closed as Issei began to speak.

 **I'm looking for a beta for this story. I've got a good bit of the next chapter done and I want someone to check it over before I release it.  
**


	7. Chapter 7 - Rewite inc

**It is with a heavy heart that I am declaring this story dropped in order to pursue a rewrite in the near future. My reasoning for this is that I would like to rewrite another story of mine, Ren's family, a crossover between persona 5 and highschool DxD. My goal is to have the two stories be concurrent and follow the same Cannon between them. Both stories will have a large break between them after the prologue and until the end of the first year in the story and fans of one and not the other will not lose anything by reading only one of them. fans of both, however, will be in for a treat.**

 **I dislike Authors who only make notes chapters so I will leave you with what remains in the google doc named HSDXF, the document with this story in it. It includes the conclusion of the Riser fight(without the fight leading up to it.) As well as a look at what would occur in the future. Neither section was proofread as neither was finished.**

 **I only hope you will be patient as I attempt to produce a good story for you in the rewrite.**

-

"Sorry kid but this is where it all ends, all of your bitches are gone. What are you supposed to do, throw a snowball at me." Riser said as his wounds burned and closed.

Issei put his hands together and a ball of destruction appeared in his hands. Then it took on a shimmering white colour.

"Do whatever you like, it won't matter, I'm a Phenex, I'm invincible." Riser cackled.

"Absolute." Issei said in a rage. "Zero." The orb expanded outwards and coated the entire field around them in a white hue. Only Issei was spared as Riser felt himself stop completely unable to move.

-flashback-

"Even the regeneration of a Phenex relies on the movement of Atoms. Even as supernatural beings we still are made of the same atoms as everything else in the universe. And atoms at −273.15 degrees celcius don't move." Ravel was sat with Issei and Sona as they strategize for the rating game.

"Even Grayfia can't reach absolute zero, it's impossible." Sona said sighing. "Issei's current lowest temperature isn't even halfway there."

"What if we found a shortcut, or another way to reduce temperature." Issei said.

"What could remove the energy in an atom?" Sona asked.

-Back with the fight-

"That's impossible even Grayfia-chan can't reach absolute zero." Serafall said watching the game next to Sirzechs and Grayfia.

"Indeed, but he wasn't just using my magic." Grayfia said impressed.

"Instead of just empowering his power of destruction to destroy more he made it more precise. He used it to destroy the movement of the atoms. The very cause of the heat. There is literally no energy to produce heat. Riser is trapped and there is a good chance that we wouldn't even be able to pull him out of there without Ise ending the spell." Sirzechs pointed out.

Issei looked Riser dead in the eye as the Blonde stood there frozen solid, "At this temperature it seems even the emergency escape rules for the rating game don't work, if I just gave you a slight push then it would be all over for you. Forever." His hand reached up towards Riser's frozen form.

"The victor of this rating game has been determined to be Issei Gremory." The announcer spoke.

"He's going to kill him!" one member of the audience shouted.

"That's impossible the Phenex are immortal." Another cried.

Issei broke the right arm off his opponent, but unlike usual there was no flames as it regenerated there was nothing just the crack of ice as the arm was removed with little issue. Issei threw it down to the ground and it shattered. Issei then brought his hands up in front of Riser's face and pulled them apart. The entire stadium was watching with bated breath as the officials scrambled to get Riser out of there.

CLAP. Issei clapped his hands and the frozen area around him heated up flames appeared on all of Riser's wounds and he was warped out to the infirmary. Issei had won, overwhelmingly so, and showed the entire underworld that he could literally freeze hell over.

 **Cutout from final arc that will not be reached in this version**

 _The following is a small excerpt from what I had for the final arc of this story, however with my plans to rewrite it will not be reached in the same form so here is the flashback for the queen in Issei's peerage_

"Alright, Issei, your turn, truth or dare?"

"Truth, this should be fun."

"Ok, erm, who was your first crush?" Asia asked very distractedly.

"Well, Ok, I don't see the harm in telling you." Issei said as he began his story

-Flashback

Issei and his best friend Ike were in the park practicing heroic poses.

"Ise what do you think of this pose?" Ike said holding one arm out straight pointing forwards and the other moved up to the side of their head holding two fingers up in a peace sign.

"It's far too girlie, A hero has to look cool when they pose so that girls will fall of them." Issei said. "See like this." Issei took a pose where he had one hand in his pocket and the other pointing outwards and turned his body about 45 degrees from the direction his legs were facing.

"What's the problem with girly poses?" Ike asked

"Because people want someone strong to help them, someone they can count on, a real hero needs a good pose so that they can make someone feel safe without even needing to do anything." Issei responded

"And girls can't do that?" Ike asked sounding annoyed.

"No, boys are always the heroes they save the girls." Issei responded, earning him a swift kick from his friend who then stormed off, huffing.

The following day Issei went over to Ike's house to apologize. When he got there his friend have him the biggest shock of his life. 'Ike' was wearing a skirt and said that she would prove that girls can be heroes too. Issei apologised and he and 'Irina' ended up having a sleepover that night.

It was the first one the pair of friends had ever had and it confirmed Touji Shidou's fears. His daughter's friend, was in fact a devil. The glowing sword in the wall was proof. The simple warding spell on the sword that had warned him off the oncoming ambush three years ago that saved his life gave the sword enough sentimental value for him to get to keep it when he want on family leave.

He took the sword off the wall and went to check on the kids. He likes he boy, but a devil was a devil, right? He opened the door to his daughters room and saw something that shook him to the very core of his beliefs. His daughter was kissing the sleeping devil. That was when he realized this wasn't the same devil who tore out his friends stomach in front of him. This was a little boy, a child and devil or not he was, for now at least, innocent. And if he could be so innocent then why couldn't other devils.

A year later it happened, the church finally called him and Irina back so that they could start her training to be an exorcist. She was heartbroken when she found out she would be leaving Issei. But the higher ups were adamant that they leave for England now.

Issei and Irina had a heartfelt farewell and Issei ended up giving her a gift, a ring, one of the rings the main character used to transform from one of their favourite shows admittedly, but she promised to never take it off anyway.

-Back to present

As Issei finished up his story the doorbell rang. "I'll get it" He said standing up when a sudden chill hit him.

"I'll handle it." Sirzechs said noticing everyone else in the room visibly reel from the aura they felt. He went to the door and opened it. "Can I help you young lady?" He asked the girl at the door. She wore a church robe and had chestnut hair in twintails reaching down her back.

"Sorry I'm looking for the Hyoudou house this was the last address my dad had for them." The church girl said. She knew she was talking to a powerful devil. She just hoped he was as peaceful as the mission brief said the devil's in Kuoh were.

"Oh, This was the right house but, didn't you hear what happened to them?" Sirzechs asked a hint of regret in his voice.

"I did but I'm trying to track down their son, I'm an old friend of his and…" It was at that point that she spotted Issei's entire peerage, minus himself peeking at the front door.

"Why don't you come inside Miss?"

"Shidou, Irina Shidou." She said stepping inside as all of the girls gasped and rushed back into the living room.

Once Irina entered the living room she felt super dense, she was surrounded by devil's at least two of which even at her most powerful she couldn't take. All that fear fizzled away the second she laid eyes on the teenage boy on one of the sofas. She tackled him into a massive hug.

"Issei!" She shouted as she smothered him into her bosom.


End file.
